Football: United hopes are hit by Torpedo

Manchester United. . 0

Torpedo Moscow. . . .0

THE inclination is to rename the Russians Torpid Moscow but that is probably an unfair reflection on a team who can now return home without a heavy deficit in goals and with all to play for on 29 September in what will be a glamorous occasion for this club in the second leg of this first-round Uefa Cup tie.

The Torpedo players, from the Zis car factory in Moscow, are earning only pounds 4 a week. This result thus represents a major victory for them and should be so applauded. That last night's match came to life only in the first and last 10 minutes is a fault of the two- legged system for it seems that the principal aim of both teams was not to concede a goal on this warm September evening.

Alex Ferguson is hoping he will have more Englishmen (Robson, Parker, Phelan and Ince were all unavailable last night) for the second leg and was thus as intent upon keeping United's goal intact as was Alexander Podshivalov.

Torpedo's goalkeeper might have been passed early on, when Neil Webb, keen on winning back a first-team place, had one shot blocked and then hit a post. United's next best effort came near the end when Podshivalov made a dramatic high-flying tip- over from Danny Wallace's header.

Gary Walsh had to make one save and was never stretched. Torpedo's general aim being to contrive to have twice as many defenders as attackers around their own area.

It all made for a flat and uninspiring European tie. The Foreign Office having done their bit for Manchester's Olympic bid by refusing to process Torpedo fans' visas over the weekend, there was but a handful of Muscovites present. The attendance of 19,998 was almost 10,000 below United's previous lowest for a European tie, in September 1990.

All kinds of conclusions can be drawn from this figure: is it the recession, higher prices, live television or the demolition of the Stretford End?

When the production of a yellow card (Alexei Arefiev was booked for a foul) is greeted with a cheer of relief in that something was seen to be happening it was indicative of the atmosphere.

However, this result does guarantee an exciting second leg when we shall discover what Torpedo can do when the engine is running forward rather than in reverse.

Both teams can be expected to make several changes and United have now been warned of the potential of the Torpedo striker, Andrei Talalayev, described by Andrei Kanchelskis, as Moscow's Lee Chapman.

Manchester United: Walsh; Irwin, Martin (Neville, 88), Bruce, Blackmore, Pallister, Kanchelskis, Webb, McClair, Hughes, Wallace.

Torpedo Moscow: Podshivalov; Fillimonov, Cheltsov, Afanasyev, Vostrosablin, Shustikov (Skachenko, 81), Grishin, Martinov, Talalayev (Ulyanov, 73), Chugunov, Arefiev.

Referee: A Schmidhuber (Ger).