PICTURES

WEBMASTER'S COMMENT

"Manchester United more or less sealed their passage to the European Cup with this 2-0 win over Lodz. All that's needed is for a quick trip to LKS Lodz's home ground to cross T's and dot I's."

MATCH REPORT

By David Anderson, PA Sport

Manchester United's lack of a reliable finisher spared the dogged defenders of LKS Lodz a more harrowing experience at Old Trafford after Ryan Giggs had given United an early lead in their Champions League qualifier.

Although Alex Ferguson's team controlled large parts of the match they were unable to find the quality where it mattered most, namely in front of the LKS goal, until nine minutes from the end when Andy Cole headed in at the far post from Denis Irwin's centre.

Lodz marked tightly, with a sweeper Witold Bendkowski, were quick to intercept final passes, and dealt competently with some early crosses.

The feeling, however, soon passed. After seven minutes only alert covering by Rafal Pawlak denied Paul Scholes a chance to exploit the rebound after Nicky Butt and Cole had combined to send in Ryan Giggs for a shot parried by Boguslaw Wyparlo in the LKS goal. After 15, United were ahead, though.

The goal was simple, quick and cleanly executed. Gary Neville's long ball was headed on by Scholes and Giggs did the rest, outwitting Bendkowski before driving a firm shot low past Wyparlo.

Five minutes later Cole successfully took on Tomasz Kos on the right before seeing his cross-shot valiantly pushed away by the busy Lodz goalkeeper.

While aware of the danger of conceding a goal at home, United found little in the LKS attack to cause them immediate concern. The Poles put their faith in counter-attacking from entrenched positions but took a while to produce anything more threatening than speculative long shots.

It was fully half an hour before Peter Schmeichel was able to view a member of the opposition at close quarters, when Tomasz Cebula narrowly lost a race with the United goalkeeper to meet a through ball. The moment only briefly interrupted United's domination of the game.

Yet they needed to reflect their superiority with more goals. Another nearly arrived in the 34th minute when a corner from David Beckham was half-cleared to Jaap Stam whose neat chip beat Wyparlo but was headed out by Grzegorz Krysiak.

Later, one of Beckham's swinging free-kicks sailed close to the righthand post and as the first half ended, Scholes volleyed just wide from Roy Keane's centre. Lodz came in grateful to be only one down.

A Polish goal was highly unlikely but not impossible and a 1-0 lead is a 1-0 lead, no matter how much territorial advantage might accompany it. A dash down the right by Beckham at the start of the second half assured Old Trafford of United's renewed determination to score again but a poor centre renewed doubts about their ability to finish what they had begun.

Within minutes, moreover, Dridoslav Zuberek had outpaced United on the left before driving a rising shot into Schmeichel's large hands.

If nothing else, this was a warning to Ferguson's team about the possible perils of taking a slender lead to the middle of Poland in a fortnight's time.

Two chances fell Cole's way early in the second half but he was unable to exploit either of them. The United striker turned quickly on a ball from Irwin but was then blocked by Bendkowski, and when he used his pace to reach Giggs's low cross it was only to touch the ball wide.

The longer the game went on the more United put their faith in free-kicks around the penalty area, trusting that Beckham, Irwin or Giggs would eventually get one on target. With Lodz steadily soaking up everything United were attempting in open play, it looked the better bet.

POST MATCH REACTIONS

Alex Ferguson feels Ryan Giggs is getting better and better after the Welshman helped Manchester United take a giant step closer to reaching the Champions League. Giggs was outstanding against LKS Lodz in the qualifying round first leg at Old Trafford and he scored the first goal after 16 minutes before Andy Cole netted the second 10 minutes from time.

Ferguson enthused: "I was pleased by how some players distinguished themselves and I thought Ryan Giggs was absolutely wonderful. I think he's getting better all the time. He has the balance to penetrate anywhere on the pitch and we have got him to alternate his role, sometimes going wide and sometimes going through the middle which is excellent for us."

Ferguson was also full of praise for the much maligned Japp Stam. Ferguson thought the Dutch International centre-half was outstanding on his competitive debut for United.

"A most pleasing aspect was Jaap Stam's performance, which was very good. He was assured, determined, confident and he has got a lot of great assets about him. These are characteristics which define him. He's a brilliant lad and he is the right type of player to have here which is great news for me."

United are hot favourites to confirm their place in the Champions League because of their two-goal advantage and Ferguson admitted he would be shocked if they did not progress.

"I will be disappointed if we did not get through, but you know what football is like," he said.

Lodz Coach, Marek Dziuba admitted his side had it all to do in the return leg in Poland in a fortnight's time.

"It's not all over and we could score two goals, but we need three and really that would be a monumental task," he said. "There is no disgrace here to what has happened when you are up against such an International team as Manchester United. I would love to have a team made up of Manchester United reserves."

TEAMS

Manchester United: Schmeichel, G Neville, Stam, Johnsen, Irwin, Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Giggs, Scholes, Cole.
Subs: Solskjaer for Scholes.
Scorers: Giggs (16), Cole (81)

LKS Lodz: Wyparlo, Bendkowski, Pawlak, Krysiak, Omadiagbe, Kos, Niznik, Wyciskiewicz, Zuberek, Cebula, Wieszczycki.
Subs: Carbone for Niznik, Paszulewicz for Zuberek, Jakubowski for Omadiagbe.