Manchester United 2-0 Swansea City: Scholes and Young goals take title race to final day

Posted Monday, May 07, 2012 by YAHOO Sport

Manchester United ensured that the club took the Premier League title race into the final day of the season with a routine 2-0 victory over Swansea at Old Trafford, with Paul Scholes and Ashley Young among the goals.

After a nervy opening 20-minute period from the home side, United was put ahead after Scholes managed to turn in Michael Carrick's scuffed shot from inside the box past the despairing Michel Vorm. Ashley Young added a second just minutes before the break, clinically dispatching a loose ball into the right corner after some kamikaze defending from Swansea.

The second half followed a very similar pattern to the first, with United well on top for long spells, and failing to put the game to bed despite creating a whole host of chances, with Javier Hernandez the main culprit in a wasteful display.

The game may be best remembered for being the final time that Dimitar Berbatov strutted his stuff in a Manchester United shirt, after making a cameo appearance off the bench.

The game began at a frantic pace, but neither side was able to carve open the opposition with any real conviction and only a blocked Wayne Rooney shot and a speculative effort from Nathan Dyer which sailed high over the bar were worthy of note in the opening quarter of an hour period.

A decent move from Swansea saw Danny Graham get off a snap-shot while under pressure from Rio Ferdinand just before United took the lead in the 27th minute through Scholes.

Scholes began the move in the middle of the park, spraying the ball out wide to Antonio Valencia, with the winger leaving Swansea left back Neil Taylor for dead before cutting back a superb ball from the byline. The Ecuadorian's pass found Carrick unmarked 12 yards from goal, but as the midfielder scuffed his effort into the ground, a deft flick from Scholes just in front of Vorm turned it goalwards and handed Ferguson's side the lead.

United extended the lead even in the 40th minute through Young. Swansea was guilty of trying to over complicate things by playing the ball out from the back and Joe Allen suicidally passed the ball to Valencia, who played it inside to Rooney, who then saw his shot well blocked by Ashley Williams. However, the ball fell to Young's feet inside the box, where he looked up and curled a low effort past the outstretched fingertips of Vorm and into the bottom corner to hand the home side a two-goal lead.

On the hour mark, with United cruising, Valencia went close to adding a third after a decent delivery in from the left by the rampaging Evra, but it was dealt with calmly by Vorm, who collected the winger's side-footed effort with ease.

Swansea still posed a threat on the break and should have reduced the deficit in the 63rd minute when Dyer blazed over high, wide and not so handsome after collecting Sigurdsson's cute diagonal pass into the area, before rounding Smalling and curling well over De Gea's bar.

Despite testing Vorm with a number of efforts from distance, most notably through Tom Cleverley and Valencia, Swansea managed to keep the scoreline down in what was an extremely flat performance.

For Manchester United, though, while the three points keep the team's already slim title hopes alive, the club failed to fully punish Rodgers side leaving a massive goal gap to be made up should City win on the final day of the season.