Rooney hails United rearguard

Wayne Rooney praised Manchester United FC's "brilliant" defence after the English champions earned a 2-0 victory at AS Roma in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final.

Clean sheets
Rooney made sure of United's win by doubling their lead on 66 minutes following a first-half opener from Cristiano Ronaldo. However, he paid tribute to the defensive efforts of his team-mates, who frustrated Roma en route to securing a fifth consecutive clean sheet – and a 23rd in 37 matches overall this campaign. "The defence was brilliant today and all season they've been the same so hopefully that will continue," Rooney said.

'Good platform'
"I thought we defended well as a team," he went on. "It was important to try to keep a clean sheet and then hopefully nick a goal and we did that just before half-time and it put us in a good position in the second half. We knew Roma would come out and attack us and it created a bit of space for us. We had the two counterattacks and made them count."

'Professional job'
The United forward has now struck six goals in seven games against Italian opposition since April last year but he refused to get too carried away. "It was a good professional job to come here and play well, and it gives us a good platform for next week," he added. "With the Champions League you never know so we'll have to go out focused and with a good attitude and then hopefully we'll see the second leg through."

O'Shea applause
Although United lost defender Nemanja Vidić to an apparent knee injury following an awkward fall in the first half, John O'Shea took his place and, like Rooney, he too was full of praise for his fellow defenders. "When the back four are playing so well and Edwin [van der Sar] is playing so well, it is easy to slot in because of the experience and the confidence they have."

'Very proud'
O'Shea added that United's counterattacking threat was key to their success, saying: "We know that defensively we are very sound and can keep clean sheets, and the pace we have on the counterattack is frightening and that has made the difference. We can feel unfortunate not to have scored a few more goals especially towards the end of the game when they were pushing on to get something back. We can feel very proud of ourselves for our performance because Roma are a good team."