Champions League: United one up at the break

Man Utd 1, Bayer Leverkusen 0 (half-time)

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - seeking his 100th goal for Manchester United - helped give the Reds the breakthrough in their Champions League showdown with Bayer Leverkusen.

Solskjaer will definitely claim the 29th-minute goal, although his shot was deflected home by the unlucky Boris Zivkovic.

Leverkusen missed a great chance to level the semi-final first leg at Old Trafford when Dimitar Berbatov directed a free header wide.

Ballack was fortunate to escape a booking, which would have ruled him out of the second leg, for cutting down Butt.

Neville was not so lucky a minute later when Slovakian referee Lubos Michel cautioned him for a foul on Ze Roberto.

United were struggling to find a way through Leverkusen’s well-drilled defence, but they split them open with a good old-fashioned route one move.

Van Nistelrooy flicked on Barthez’s long goal-kick to Solskjaer and the Norwegian, who needed one more goal to clock up his ton for United, shot left-footed just wide of Jorg Butt’s right-hand post.

Solskjaer reached the milestone on 29 minutes, although the strike will probably go down as an own goal by the hapless Boris Zivkovic.

Scholes began the move with a delightful ball down the right channel for van Nistelrooy and when Solskjaer met his cross, the ball deflected off Zivkovic’s chest and past Butt.

Berbatov should have equalised five minutes later when he directed a free header wide of Barthez’s left-hand post from Carsten Ramelow’s cross.

The chances continued to come at both ends and Mikael Silvestre drilled a left-foot effort across the Leverkusen goal before Yildiray Basturk shot just wide at the other end.