Ronaldo Lights Up the Night at Dynamo

The number of players in the treatment room might give Sir Alex Ferguson cause for concern though an emphatic victory that all but secures a place in the last 16 should help to ease the Manchester United manager's state of mind. He surely could not have imagined that this trip to Kiev without several key personnel would yield four goals for the third successive match as United secured their place at the top of Group F.

The margin of victory might easily have been wider on a night United became only the second English club to win at Dynamo's home. Wayne Rooney will take particular pleasure, the forward extending his personal record by scoring for the sixth consecutive match, although this was a performance more memorable for collective rather than individual effort. With Dynamo due at United in a fortnight's time, Ferguson can start planning for the knockout stage.

The Scot had talked beforehand about the impressive way in which United have coped with the loss of key players this season but there were further, unforeseen, absences to contend with here. Having lost Paul Scholes to a knee injury which the midfielder picked up on Monday night - he is due to have a scan today - he suffered another blow in the warm-up when Patrice Evra, clearly in some discomfort, pulled up and was withdrawn to the substitutes' bench.

Those setbacks might have been expected to unsettle United but two goals inside the opening 18 minutes provided the perfect antidote. Dynamo were shell-shocked, the home team simply unable to cope with the pace United showed on the counter-attack. That much was evident when Wes Brown broke up play inside his own half to initiate a swift break that culminated in Rooney tapping home to double United's lead.

The finish was straightforward but there was much to marvel at in terms of United's ability to turn defense into attack with such alacrity. Having pilfered possession, Brown fed Cristiano Ronaldo, encouraging the winger to run through the heart of the Dynamo defense. Brown continued his run, linking once again with the impressive Portuguese, before slipping a perfectly weighted pass across the six-yard box that implored Rooney, unmarked at the far post, to score.

United were already a goal to the good at that point, with Ronaldo's trickery on the right drawing a foul from Tiberiu Ghioane, who was fortunate to escape sanction after what appeared to be a two-foot challenge on the Portuguese. No matter. United exacted their own punishment within seconds as Rio Ferdinand climbed imperiously to send a thumping header from Ryan Giggs's free kick behind Olexandr Shovkovskiy to collect his second goal in four days.

United were dominant, almost threatening to score every time they entered the Dynamo half as Carlos Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo combined with menace. Rooney should have added his second in the 20th minute but his drive was parried by Shovkovskiy before Tevez had a shot blocked. That miss must have been uppermost in Ferguson's mind when Diego Rincon gave Dynamo brief hope.

The Brazilian took advantage of the freedom he was afforded in the United area to head Carlos Correa's corner past Edwin van der Sar. Normal service was quickly resumed, however, when Giggs delivered a deep cross from the left that Ronaldo, somehow evading Dynamo's defensive radar, nodded effortlessly into the top corner. It was a goal John O'Shea would have been relieved to see after he had inexplicably missed from three yards 60 seconds earlier.

United's two-goal lead at the interval promised stability, but Dynamo refused to surrender. Having seen Anderson come within inches of adding a fourth when his shot struck an upright five minutes after a restart, Oleg Gusev picked out Rincon with a curling delivery that the forward glanced narrowly wide.

There would be another warning for United, and Dynamo sensed the game was not beyond them when Correa's 25-yard free-kick clipped the side netting.

Any hope of a fight-back would soon be lost. Following a lengthy discussion between the referee and a linesman it was deemed that Tevez's cross into the area had struck Goran Gavrancic's arm. Ronaldo, taking responsibility ahead of Rooney after the England forward had missed from the spot against Aston Villa, confidently guided his shot inside a post. There was a goal for Ismael Bangoura soon after, but the game was up for them.