Praise Be

A bit late... but what a result and what a performance.
This might sound biased (well in truth it is) but I've never seen football like it.
After ten minutes I was getting a bit fidgety. Roma were dominating the ball, Totti was running the show and I feared we might go into our shell. Previous exits at the hands of Milan and Porto had seen plenty of passion in the stands in inverse proportion to the gumption on the pitch.
Suddenly Ronaldo breaks down the left, tries a few stepovers, is closed down but finds Carrick. The Geordie midfielder appears to stumble at this point, losing the ball under his feet but regains his balance sufficiently to guide a shot towards goal. An easy save one would think. Fortunately, Roma's Doni seemed to expect anything but a shot as the ball sails passed his left shoulder before effortlessly riffling the net - and like that United are on fire.
The second was a one-touch move made in heaven - Heinze to Giggs to Smith, back of the net. The third: Ronnie wins it in the area gives it to O'Shea who releases an out of position Giggs. A slide-rule cross touched home by Wayne Rooney. Nine minutes, three goals - Europe stunned.
The rest of the half was spent hoping we wouldn't throw the lead away (remember Roma were only two down at this point) before Ronny inevitably got a run at Panucci and beat three defenders and the hapless Doni from the edge of the box - cue the gushing praise of ITV's pundits.
In truth the second half was little more than gilding the lily. The 9 minutes United produced were simply stunning, unmatchable by any current team except perhaps perhaps an on song Barcelona.
So they can go all the way. But will they? Call me a pessimist but defeat at the hands of a parsimonious AC Milan side now seems inevitable. Should we get past the ageing Italians, I don't think we have the midfield to outmuscle either Liverpool or Chelsea's tightly packed, heavily marked defensive tactics. But ultimately I don't think it matters. A performance that good deserves to sit in the pantheon alongside Brazil beating Italy 4-1 in 1970, the reds own 5-1 victory in Benfica in '66, England's 5-1 win in Munich and Argentina's 6-1 destruction of Serbia.
Those performances have lived longer in the memory than the rollcall of victors in the respective competitions.
As far as I'm concerned, whoever triumphs in Athens in May will forever be in the shadow of those 9 magic, manic minutes at Old Trafford when we watched footballing perfection.