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Valencia leaves it late as United edge closer CSKA MOSCOW 0 MAN UNITED 1 Antonio VAlenciA struck a late winner in Moscow as Manchester United maintained their 100 per cent record in the champions league this season. United, who are on the brink of a place in the last 16, can now look forward to Sundays Premier league trip to troubled rivals liverpool with confidence. chances had been at a premium on the artificial surface of the luzhniki Stadi- um the scene of Uniteds final triumph over chelsea 2008 but SirAlex Fergu- sons side finished strongly. Valencia, who celebrated his first United goal last weekend, bagged his first in europe four minutes from time, moments after rattling the crossbar. nani had earlier gone close with a firm header from a Gary neville cross while a bouncing 35-yard effort from Paul Scholes in the first half forced cSKA goalkeeper igor Akinfeev into a save. Ferguson, perhaps with Anfield in mind, made five changes from the side that beat Bolton last weekend.nemanja Vidic returned to the centre of defence while John oShea and Scholes were included in central midfield. nani and Fabio came in on the left. Scholes effort aside, little was cre- ated in the first half. But the second got off to a lively start with chances at both ends. indeed, Alan Dzagoev had the ball in the net before the hour but the flag had been raised for offside. Dimitar Berbatov then claimed a penalty after an Aleksei Berezutski challenge but was booked for diving. Valencia went much closer eight min- utes later when he combined with Ber- batov and nani but struck the crossbar. not to be denied, the ecuadorian went one better soon after when he latched on to a Berbatov header and turned six yards out to lash home the winner. CSKA Moscow: Akinfeev, Semberas, Ignashevich, A Berezutsky, V Berezutsky, Odiah, Rahimic (Daniel Carvalho 90), Shchennikov (Mamaev 62), Krasic, Dzagoev, Necid (Piliev 73). Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand (Brown 57), Vidic, Fabio (Carrick 88), OShea, Valencia, Scholes (Owen 71), Anderson, Nani, Berbatov. Booked: Berbatov. Ref: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark). MATCH FACTS Head to head: Gary Neville, right, clashes with Georgi Shchennikov in Moscow last night Picture: AFP/Getty SOCCER CHAMPIONS LEAGUE By KEvIN AItKEN Abou DiAby believes Arsenal will learn from their mistakes in Europe this season. The Gunners threw away what would have been a third straight Champions League victory by allowing AZ Alkmaar to snatch a stoppage-time equaliser in Holland on Tuesday. boss Arsene Wenger felt his team had been nave in failing to close out the game as David Mendes Da Silva smashed home an injury-time equaliser. While it was a much more composed display than the first Champions League Group H away fixture, when Arsenal went 2-0 down against Standard Liege inside five minutes before winning 3-2, Diaby admits: We will take a good lesson from this. We need to stay focused until the last minute, so we need to work on that. We can still improve in these situations, to be focused. Now we need to look to the game against West Ham, and be ready. on Sundays game at upton Park, full-back Gael Clichy added: West Ham are not doing so well but we have to be careful. Elsewhere, both Samir Nasri and keeper Lukasz Fabianski continued their rehabilitation with a run-out for the reserves against Wolves on Tuesday. Nasri, who broke a leg in pre-season, could face Liverpool in next weeks Carling Cup tie. Diaby: We will learn European lessons ChAMpIONShIp Strachan in line to follow axed Gareth MIDDLESBROUGH chairman Steve Gibson admits he took the decision to axe manager Gareth Southgate out of fear the club would fail to win promotion back to the Premier League this season. Southgate was fired on Tuesday night, despite his side going fourth in the Championship with a 2-0 win over Derby, and former Celtic boss Gordon Strachan was immediately installed as the bookies favourite to become his successor. Gibson said: When I sat down and considered our start to the season I felt the table was actually more favourable than some of our performances. In general, the results and the performances have not been to the level I would have hoped for. Before last night our five home games had brought in seven points. That will not get us promoted and promotion is the only objective. Strachan has now been linked with the job and Gibson admitted: We already had a strategy for Gareths replacement. The timing of his sacking was determined a little by the implementation of that strategy. Ferguson dismisses United injury fears Sir Alex Ferguson last night played down possible injuries to several of his squad ahead of Sundays Premier league showdown with liverpool. Brazilian full-back Fabio went off on a stretcher, while rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes, also came off in the second half. Fabio was absolutely outstanding today, the boys magnificent for 18 years of age, said the United boss. Hes first-class, he just had some cramp, hell be okay. i took rio and Scholesy off mainly as a precaution. Ferguson also had no issues with the controversial plastic pitch. i said before the game that if youre a good footballer you concentrate on the ball, he added. i think they did that and they did it well. experience in these sort of situations is always vital. We created some good goal opportunities and if we have to wait to the 86th minute, so be it. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html