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Gabriel Obertan became restless when he realised that we were unlikely to be taking him to visit his spiritual home. The nocturnal Nosferobertan must have been galled to hear that as soon as he departed we were drawn to play in Gala?i, a town twenty miles from the borders of Ukraine and Moldova, half a day’s ox and cart ride from the mist-shrouded castles of the Transylvanian Alps.

It was only United’s second visit to Romania. We played a qualifying match against Dinamo in Bucharest in 2005, recovering to win with the help of a lovely goal by Ryan Giggs which was sandwiched between two own goals, a slapstick one by Quinton Fortune and a cracker by Angelo Alistar.

O?elul Gala?i’s stadium having been deemed unfit for the Champions League the match was moved 150 miles to the National Stadium in Bucharest; Gala?i fans were offered free buses to prevent them losing their bearings and their immortal souls. The stadium has been rebuilt since we played Dinamo there. The new one, finished in September, has a capacity of 55,600 but following the Glazers’ lead the Romanians lied about the attendance. The official crowd of 49,500 looked to most who made the trip or who saw the panoramic sweep of the television cameras at least double the actual attendance on a fine, chilly night.

The qualifiers eliminate the rabbits and there are few easy matches in this competition. O?elul are Romanian Champions; strange land, excited crowd, once in a lifetime opportunity for the locals. Their finances, however, would make Crawley Town look a rich club and they have made a poor start to their season and were not even playing at home; we had made a routine trip onerable by failing to beat Basel.

Anders Lindegaard got a game, Anderson, Smalling and Nani started but back into the side came seven who had started last season’s final and not been good enough to win it; most notably the sorely missed Nemanja Vidi?, returning after a torn calf muscle. There has been criticism of our performance but there is no-one more experienced at surviving tricky Champions League trips than Sir Alex Ferguson and, for the result we needed, he played it to perfection. There was every sign that we would have run out comfortable winners had not Plan A had to be hurriedly shelved with a quarter of the match to go.

We found it difficult to penetrate the oppilative Romanians in the first half and though for all but a five minute period we camped in their territory we looked vulnerable to the counter attack, partly through the rustiness of Vidi?. It is one thing to give the ball away on the edge of the opponents’ area as did most of his team, quite another to give it on the edge of your own as our captain did in the twelfth minute, straight to their top scorer Bratislav Punošovac who shot was uninspired and straight at Lindegaard.

Punošovac had another chance when Sorin Frunza robbed Fábio but his most telling contribution of the half was to steal the ball off Liviu Antal’s toes and miss after Antal had flicked the ball brilliantly past Vidi? and lined himself up for the kill. A Lindegaard clearance rebounded off Vidi?. Just before the break there was an exciting run by Ioan Filip and a header by Antal, both attempts just over the bar.

Yet we had four times as many completed passes and an 80% success rate with them. Michael Carrick looked solid, Anderson tried some excellent stuff, Patrice Evra had a fine game and Nani and Fábio da Silva looked threatening. We failed to work goalkeeper Branko Grahovac sufficiently because of the poor final ball in an overcrowded area. He still had difficulty keeping out a Rooney free kick and he survived when he failed to hold Nani’s fierce ground shot. In the flurry of chances at either end just before the break Carrick might well have scored from fifteen yards had he kept down Nani’s fine cut back.

After the break, though, United went about the task with greater vigour and superior art. Sergiu Costin, the Gala?i captain who had been playing magnificently, just prevented Hernández from getting through, Evra chose to play the flashy pass to Wayne Rooney when Javier Hernández was free. Gala?i players were tiring and conceding free kicks and yellow cards. We had completed 385 passes to their 134 and run 71 kilometres to their 82.

True, they made nothing of Lindegaard’s wild clearance and a linesman wrongly flagged Punošovac offside but Jonu? Neagu clattered Nani and from the flowing move begun from the free kick Rooney should have scored. His trap and turn from Nani’s cross were classic but the ball grazed the post. Seconds later Nani released Rooney with a peach of a ball and Rooney’s orthogonal pass for the unmarked Hernández was handled by Costin.

It looked glaikit or even accidental but it was carried out with back to the referee and slow motion showed it to be a legerdemain deserving of a red card, though Costin had the effrontery to complain. To a chorus of catcalling Rooney put the penalty to Grahovac’s left as the goalkeeper dived right. Successful penalties are good ones; 64 minutes 1-0.

Within a minute, however, the Ferguson game plan was in tatters. Vidi?’s tackle on Gabriel Giurgiu was careless and his foot was high but he stoodst baffled while keenest disappointment rack’d his breast at the sight of Fritz Brych’s red card. Discretion fought with nature as his mute obtemperance was clouded with the dejected ‘haviour of his visage.

Suddenly Gala?i had been blessed with this dream of an advantage and the situation engendered onychophogy. From being in control we were now hanging on to a slender lead with a depleted team and evil night descending upon the cold mountains to the North.

Carrick moved to centre back and brilliantly blocked Antal’s volley when all looked lost. Jonny Evans replaced Valencia but from Frunza’s corner kick Marius Pena headed over at an unguarded near post. When Phil Jones came on for the limping Fábio, Filip crossed from the Gala?i right and Punošovac’s beautifully astute volley was agonisingly close.

Up front, however, Rooney seemed a new man. Where before his goal he had been effective in fits and starts now he was ubiquitous and his partnership with Hernández looked deadly. Anderson and Nani were revelling in the space as Gala?i came forward, the yellow card toll was mounting and it was only a matter of time before a home player already booked would reoffend.

The privilege fell to Milan Perendija. When Rooney lobbed an inviting pass he made no pretence about wrestling Hernández to the floor to prevent him getting to it, a tackle illegal even in American Football.

There was only a minute of normal time left but the sides were now again equal in number and Gala?i seemed to have realised that what was needed was a United goal to settle the night. Filip tried to put his tired team out of their misery with a crossfield ball which would have got him banned from a school team, straight to Nani whose twenty yard pile driver, neatly executed, came off the inside of the post. Antal did the job properly, whipping Rooney’s leg from under him as the forward jinked on to Anderson’s well judged pass.

He must have been just about the only Gala?i man not on a yellow card, so he stayed on the pitch to watch Rooney spread a charm around the spot and take a much better penalty. A good job, too because Grahovac dived to where he would have saved the first one only this one was harder, wider and curling around his outstretched hand; 92 minutes 2-0.

The news from Switzerland that Benfica had managed away from home what we could not manage at home has left the Portuguese club favourites to win the group and United back on track to qualify. We will be playing at least the next game in this competition without Vidi? but all thought now must be concentrated upon Sunday’s Mancunian gigantomachy.

Paul Andrew James