United: The great pretenders?

THE corpse of Manchester United’s European dream is still warm but already the post-mortem is well under way. And there could be further casualties resulting from Wednesday’s night’s crushing loss to Barcelona in Rome, as fresh doubts are raised about the Old Trafford futures of Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

Meanwhile, the most pressing question posed by their comprehensive defeat is why United so singularly failed to do themselves justice in the Stadio Olimpico.

Of course, the main reason, and the most glaringly obvious one, is that, after a misleading opening ten minutes, Barcelona barely gave the defending champions a chance to make their standard pitch.