Rooney hoping to shine again

He may have played the support act to Cristiano Ronaldo's leading man for much of Manchester United FC's season, but Wayne Rooney proved against AC Milan that he is not the type to stay in the shadows for long.

Bright young things
The meeting of the red halves of Manchester and Milan had been billed as a showdown between football's brightest young things, Ronaldo and Kaká. Yet it was apt that Rooney, epitomising more than anyone the never-say-die spirit of Sir Alex Ferguson's treble-chasers, should outshine both by scoring twice - including an added-time winner - on a thrilling night at Old Trafford to ensure United travel to Italy on Wednesday with a 3-2 lead and in expectation rather than hope of reaching the Athens final.

'Feeling good'
"I think Kaká showed how good he is with his two goals and Ronaldo has proved himself all season by playing well week in, week out," Rooney told uefa.com. But his own contribution to United's epic campaign should not be underestimated. That double strike in the first leg took him level on 22 goals for the season with Ronaldo and he is hungry for more. "It's the end of the season and I'm feeling good, feeling fit, and hopefully I can keep playing and scoring goals."

Ruthless
Rooney may have taken time to find his feet in the UEFA Champions League, going 17 matches without a goal prior to his home-and-away efforts against AS Roma, but the 21-year-old displayed a ruthless touch against Milan. He registered his first with a finish which matched the deftness of Paul Scholes's flicked pass. For the second he reached Ryan Giggs's pass ahead of Alessandro Nesta before dispatching the ball with equal parts power and precision inside Dida's near post in added time.

'Pegged them back'
"The last goal was so important, to get it at the end, and I'm just delighted we got the win," he said. "In the first half they had a couple of chances and took them so it hurt us a bit. In the second we pegged them right back and knew that if we had chances we had to take them. We kept pressurising them to make chances and fortunately we got the two goals at the end so we're delighted."

Lone role
Rooney's brace came from a position he has not enjoyed in the past, that of the lone striker, as Sir Alex opted to omit Alan Smith and use Darren Fletcher as a midfield anchor alongside Michael Carrick - the duo providing the platform for the increased second-half tempo which culminated in Rooney's late heroics. The match-winner said of his manager: "He told us at half-time to keep playing, keep going forward and that's what we did. We kept going and didn't let our heads go down and got the win in the end."

Three fronts
Rooney sees "no reason" to alter in Italy an attacking policy which has served United wonderfully well this season, and could yet prove the difference between Premiership glory and another second-placed finish. With an FA Cup final against Chelsea FC also on the horizon, he is hopeful United can triumph at home and in Europe. "I'd like to win all of them to be honest," he said, laughing. "Personally I'd most like to win the league, being from England and watching the Premiership all my life, so hopefully we can win that and do well in the Champions League as well. It would be a dream come true, a Champions League final. It's what all players want to do."

This is an abridged version of an article which appears in this week's edition of the uefa.com Magazine. To read the feature in full, click here.