Tevez

Lyon: The board was held up into the night air and the numbers conveyed a deeper significance than just the names of the substitutes. Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, the men who had carried Manchester United through so many campaigns, walked off to be replaced by the new generation of Carlos Tevez and Nani.

In the event, both men played a role in the move that finished with Tevez volleying the ball into the roof of the Lyon net three minutes from the end of a match that United ought to have lost. In games past, it was Scholes and Giggs who provided these late goals. They may simply just had a bad game.

By rights of possession and chances created, Lyon should have put the European Cup beyond Sir Alex Ferguson’s reach on Wednesday night. As it is, he would back his players to progress in the stadium that in the Champions League they have forged into a fortress.

[Uefa is awaiting a report before deciding whether to investigate Lyon’s fans after a complaint from Manchester United that winger Cristiano Ronaldo had a laser beam directed at his eyes. Alex Ferguson said the incident happened during the warm-up, a Reuters report said.]

For a side that has won six straight French championships, Lyon do not appear to have spent much of the prize money on their neat, unremarkable stadium. Yet Ferguson’s sides often came to grief in the intimate surroundings of the Dell. Long before Karim Benzema drove his shot from the edge of the area into the corner of Edwin van der Sar’s goal nine minutes into the second half, there was the realisation that this, in its way, would be as testing a night as Liverpool had faced against Inter Milan on Tuesday and the result would be different.

Benzema’s goal was a blow to the pit of the stomach delivered from nowhere, but it had been coming. Lyon had their chances to land a decisive blow in a first half that slipped by in a torrent of quick-passing football. Although coach Alain Perrin was cautious in leaving the promising Hatem Ben Arfa on the bench, United were too often on the back foot for comfort and when Benzema was presented with a beautiful pull-back from Kim Hallestrom, the stadium held its breath. The shot whistled over.

For a couple of seconds there would have been only one man gulping down a sharp intake of air and it was Rio Ferdinand. He was presented with a straightforward clearance, sliced the ball off his shin and saw it career off behind him with Van der Sar hopelessly stranded.