Otelul Galati Vs. Manchester United, 2011 UEFA Champions League: Red Devils Scrape Win On Two Penalties

Manchester United grabbed their first win of this season's UEFA Champions League campaign, beating Romanian minnows Otelul Galati 2-0 thanks to two second-half penalties. It was hardly a spectacular performance from United, who saw themselves outshot by a team that only 0.05% of football fans know how to pronounce, and they also suffered the indignity of having fullback Fabio da Silva injured and Nemanja Vidic sent off for roughly zero reason whatsoever.

Oh, but they won. That was good. The first penalty was conceded after a really stupid handball by Sergiu Costin to knock down a cross, an opportunity Wayne Rooney couldn't resist converting with an emphatic finish. Then things got a little bit weird - Vidic was shown a straight red for going in late on Gabriel Giurgiu, a tackle that's never more than a yellow card, and eventually one of the hosts was shown the door too, the often-booked Milan Perendija drawing his second yellow of the match for a foul on Javier Hernandez. There was time to hit the post for Nani and then for Rooney to draw United's second penalty, which he drilled into the bottom right corner to give United a scoreline that made the whole performance seem like a routine win. It wasn't one by any stretch of the imagination.