Van Nistelrooy double rescues Manchester United

Two goals inside a minute by Ruud Van Nistelrooy rescued injury-hit Manchester United on Tuesday as they recovered from conceding a goal after 31 seconds to beat Basel 3-1 in Champions League Group D clash.

Van Nistelrooy, who hit a hat-trick for United against Newcastle in the English premier league on Saturday, struck in the 61st and 62nd minutes after Argentine striker Christian Gimenez had fired Basel in front 31 seconds in the first half.

The mobile and dangerous Dutchman then turned provider to lay on the third Manchester goal for his strike partner Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the 68th minute to seal victory for the visitors who responded well after a rocky opening spell.

"We rode our luck at times," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "Goals change games. I've seen it many times and that's what happened tonight. Their opening goal set them up and our first goal knocked them back again."

The result signalled a rude awakening for Basel, who had eliminated Britain's former European Cup winners Celtic and Liverpool from earlier stages of the competition.

It was their first home defeat of the season in their first-ever meeting with United after becoming the first Swiss team to reach the second group stage of the Champions League.

United's inexperienced defence, missing veteran Frenchman Laurent Blanc and English internationals Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand, was torn open almost at will by the clever and elusive running of the Basel forwards in the first hour and French World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was forced to make several excellent saves as the Swiss team took control.

But the 1968 and 1999 European Cup winners proved they had deep reserves of spirit and resilience by fighting back from their worst spell to snatch an equaliser and, when Basel's morale dropped, take victory. Their three goals came in a seven-minute spell.

"There is no doubt that Van Nistelrooy was our match-winner tonight," Ferguson said. "His finishing is just fantastic and if you see him in training every day you know exactly what he is capable of doing and he showed it tonight."

In a United team also missing midfielders Roy Keane, David Beckham and Nicky Butt, Van Nistelrooy was inspirational. His performance masked cracks elsewhere as Basel missed a chance to add another famous scalp to their collection this season.

BASEL ATTACK

Basel attacked from the start, forced a corner after only 10 seconds and from it saw a header by Julio Hernan Rossi cleared off the line by Quinton Fortune. The ball went only as far as Australian midfielder Scott Chipperfield and his follow-up shot was diverted past a stunned Barthez by the alert Gimenez.

Rossi almost added a second when he stretched Barthez with an angled chip shot and he caused more panic in the United defence with a dribble and shot from the right.

In response, Paul Scholes showed his frustration with a series of fouls that culminated in a yellow card, the first of four on the night.

Another Chipperfield shot, shortly before the interval, had Barthez beaten but the ball rolled agonisingly wide as United scrambled to stay afloat against waves of penetrative attacks.

Basel almost added to their lead two minutes into the second half when Rossi and Gimenez combined again, from a long throw-in, but Barthez produced a world-class reaction save to stop Gimenez's close range shot.

"If we had scored then it might have been different but Barthez was brilliant," Basel coach Christian Gross said. "United showed their strength and their class in the second half after that."

From then on, United seemed to find extra energy and urgency in attack and they levelled when Van Nistelrooy rose to head in at the far post from a deep cross by Solskjaer and then went in front when the Dutchman produced a remarkable individual strike from a seemingly impossible acute angle.

Cutting in from the left, he evaded two challenges on the byline before curving a right foot shot across the goal and in off the far post from 10 metres.

He used the same foot six minutes later to slide a perfect through ball into Solskjaer's path and the Norwegian ran clear to drive United's third under the advancing goalkeeper's feet.

"We made a good start, we looked confident, but we could not score a second goal and when the game became fast and furious in the second half we struggled," Gross said.

"We don't like losing but this is now a test of character for my players."