A below strength Manchester United side scraped a crucial 1-0 victory away to CSKA Moscow to leave themselves on the brink of qualification for the Champions League knockout stage.
The game, played on artificial grass, never really kicked into life although United were comfortably the better side throughout.
Gary Neville’s left footed curling shot came the closest to opening the scoring in the first half which in itself showed how few clear cut opportunities there were.
United pushed for the winner in the second half with Michael Owen missing the target before Antonio Valencia struck the bar. However, Valencia made no mistake in the 85th minute with a clever angled shot past the goalkeeper.
Travelling to Moscow during the winter months is never a memorable experience and United will be glad to have escaped with all three points and qualification all but secured.
The story was fairly similar just days earlier during the Premier League champions 2-1 victory at home to Bolton.
Despite an own goal from Zat Knight and Antonio Valencia notching his first goal for the club, United seemed to switch off at times allowing Bolton back into the game. The visitors will claim that they were unlucky not to have snatched a point after laying siege to the United goal in the final minutes of the match.
However, when the 38 matches have been played and the champions for 2009/10 are crowned, it may just be them unconvincing three points against Bolton which seperates United from the rest of the pack.