Beckham made his presence felt early with one of his patented long balls into the area that ended up on the foot of Ronaldinho off Evra's attempt to head it clear who drilled it off Carrick into the back post side netting for the lead (3). United, under intense pressure early, got back on even terms via a freakish goal from Scholes (36) but it wasn't before they nearly gave the result away with a handful of errors that could have cost them their deserved win. The Scholes goal was fortunate as he missed the Fletcher cross with his right and the ball deflected off his left shin and in from inside the six. United's defense was nearly caught out on a few occasions making their opening half a bit shaky at both ends of the pitch. The recent history of United in Italy has not been up to their standard and at times this one looked headed for that same fate.

Rooney came to the rescue in the second half with two more goals as his rampage of scoring continued to make it 1-3. Clarence Seedorf pulled one back for Milan in the 85th to give them some hope for the second leg.

In France Lyon got a second half stunner from Makoun (47) to send that big club with all those stars that only borrowed money could build packing with a 1-0 victory. In case you didn't catch the sarcassm there Real Madrid was beaten by Lyon. In the British press they would say it like this; it was a fair result or that Lyon deserved the win despite all those big name, big money players in those white shirts.

Arsenal visited Porto and it has to be said, escaped a near fiasco with a chance to recover in the second leg. Porto was buzzing early on and only wayward shots saved the Gunners from being pushed aside. That fortune wouldn't last however, as Fadianski bungled a cross into his own goal (11) for the opener. Seven minutes later Sol Campbell was in the right place when Rosicky headed the ball back across goal and he hammered in the free header to level. The match marked the 200th for Campbell in the Gunners kit and also marked his scoring in consecutive appearances in CL action for Arsenal, albeit 4 years apart. The second half started better for the Gunners but it too wouldn't last. Just six minutes in a bizarre sequence of events gifted Porto the match winner. A backpass from Campbell was picked up by Fabianski, the keeper surrendered the ball to the ref who quickly placed it down, Porto taking the quick free kick sliding a pass to the center of the area resulting in the goal from Falcao into the undefended net. It was truly bizarre and Arsenal would not recover losing 2-1.

Standby fans, the man that was the lead official in this contest, Martin Hansson, is the same guy that missed (or did he?) Terri Henri's double touch handball that defeated Ireland in World Cup qualifying, will be in South Africa. Can you imagine the scope of the disaster that he will conjure up there? He reminds me of the cartoon character Linus dragging around that black cloud wherever he goes disaster is not far away.

It took a blatant offside missed by the officials that allowed Miroslav Close's match winner (89) to stand giving Bayern a 2-1 victory over ten man Fiorentina. What makes this so unsettling is it wasn't even close (no pun intended) as Close was clearly two yards offside on the play. And, when you think of the scandals swirling around the game in Europe alert fans have to wonder was this somehow an example of that mess? UEFA will quietly look into the matter, of that you can be certain, but with the typical bureaucratic blundering we won't hear anything at all for years and then only if there is something they simply can't keep covered up about it all.

In Europa League action Everton defeated Sporting Lisbon 2-1 with Sporting's late penalty conversion lifting their hopes for the second leg with the away goal. Everton's goals came from Pienaar and Distin who was lost to the Toffees for the next leg when he was sent off late (86) with a straight red that resulted in the penalty for Sporting. Donovan was influential again for Everton but looking back his attempt to chip the keeper in the 59th could have been decisive had it been successful.

Liverpool, after being dumped out of the Champions League, hosted Unirea (Romanian champs) at Anfield and not surprisingly for this edition of the Reds, found them a tough nut to crack. David Ngog notched the lone goal of the night (81) for the 1-0 win.

Fulham hosted Shaktar Donestk and found it tough going too but in the end goals from Gera (3) and Zamora's match winner (63) put them over the top for the 2-1 victory.

Meanwhile back in England Man City was at Stoke cashing in one of their games in hand where a win or draw would put them above Liverpool to 4th. The timing is exquisite since Man City will host Liverpool in a head-to-head meeting with 4th place on the line on the coming weekend. This one ended in a 1-1 deadlock but it certainly was not a snoozer. Gareth Barry hit in the 85th to knot the score with the ten man Potters but the real drama came in stoppage time. Stoke thought they had notched the match winner when a Rory Delap throw was headed home by Shawcross but the goal was denied by a foul called on Shay Given.

Excuse me? This is lunacy. Given, the Man City keeper fouled someone and that resulted in Stoke's goal being denied? The biggest save of the day is a foul by the keeper? The best punishment he could get for his foul would be his opponent scoring on the play and that would be deserved. In this case his foul prevents the goal from counting and his team from losing in the process. Absurd.In EPL action Wigan welcomed Bolton in a key contest for both sides in the thick of the relegation battle but that was the highlight. The drab affair finished in a scoreless deadlock.

In the weekend EPL action Chelsea extended their lead at the top to 4 points with a 2-0 victory over Wolves on yet another double from Drogba and United's 3-1 loss to Everton. Rooney's recent scoring binge ended at his former teams home ground as the Toffees rallied after Berbatov's opener (16) much as they did just 10 days ago against the Blues. Bilayletdinov got Everton back on even terms just 3 minutes later and the match winner came from sub Dan Gosling and another sub, Jack Rodwell, added the clincher. Everton have now defeated both of the top teams in consecutive matches and have gone 5-1-1 since introducing Landon Donovan into their starting lineup. Donovan was again influential in the outcome but didn't appear on the scoresheet.

Arsenal stopped their mini-slide with a 2-0 victory over Sunderland also taking advantage of United's loss to close the gap and West Ham continued their recent run with a decisive 3-0 victory over 10 man Hull.

The season of turmoil continued for Portsmouth as they lost on a last ditch stoppage time winner to a man (Diao) who had not scored in 8 years. You can't make this stuff up. Pompey were playing well and held the lead via a 35th minute strike from Piquione. Stoke evened the score in the 50th via a Huth header. Then Stoke went down to 10 men in the 73rd on Wilkinson's second yellow but the Potters stayed positive and got the reward in injury time for the match winner just ahead of the final whistle. A devastating blow for Pompey.

Blackburn buried Bolton 3-0 on goals from Kalinic (41), second half sub Jason Roberts (73) and Givet (84) to close the book and keep the Wanderers in very real jeopardy.

Burnley started well at Villa Park and Steven Fletcher opened the scoring in the 10th minute as the Clarets bid for their first win away seemed on track. Ashley Young got Villa on level terms in the 32nd minute off a corner to settle the nerves of the fans as the poor opening half ended 1-1. That wouldn't last as Villa produced four goals within 13 minutes with two from Downing (56 & 58), Heskey (61) and Agbonlahor (68) to blow open the game. Martin Peterson got a consolation for Burnley (90) as the Clarets lose their 6th in the last 7 league games. Burnley have now conceded more goals than any other EPL side (55) with 43 of them coming in the 14 away games where they have managed to earn only 1 point.

Bobby Zamora nailed a stoppage time free kick for a 2-1 win for Fulham over Birmingham. An early OG (3) put City up and Duff finally got Fulham level in the 59th ahead of the late heroics from Zamora.

Spurs Jermain Defoe tapped in a cross from Gareth Bale from in close (27) for the lead at Wigan. Defoe appeared to be clearly offside on the play but the goal was allowed. The score remained 1-0 until Pavlyuchenko came on in the 73rd for Defoe and he scored in the 84th and then again in stoppage time for the 0-3 final. The win and the draw at Eastlands puts Spurs in 4th on goal difference over City.

The much anticipated showdown between Man City and Liverpool in the battle for the final Champions League place turned into a dour bore of a match. A huge disappointment. Frankly, such a poor game on behalf of both of these squads in a game of such importance illustrates why neither of them deserve to be included in that competition next year. Neither side managed a shot on goal in the opening half and the second wasn't much better. As has been suggested off and on over the years this game was one of those where neither side should earn a point for the scoreless draw. At times, a scoreless deadlock can be among the most thrilling of games. This was not one of them.