It is an anniversary Wayne Rooney would probably rather forget, but at least he made it a happy one.Twelve months on from the tumultuous five days which saw Rooney threaten to leave Manchester United, the forward spared his club their worst-ever start to a Champions League campaign with two second-half penalties against the unremarkable Romanian champions Otelul Galati which saw him overtake Paul Scholes as the highest-scoring Englishman in Champions League history with 26 goals.
It was anything but spectacular from United or Rooney, but the 25-year-old’s ability to turn defeats into draws and draws into victories, as shown again in Bucharest, is why Sir Alex Ferguson waged such a determined battle to keep the England striker at Old Trafford a year ago this week.
Two penalties in a half-empty stadium in Romania will hardly go alongside Rooney’s United highlights, but by securing their first Group C victory this season, the importance of his accuracy from 12 yards should not be under-estimated.
The harsh dismissal of captain Nemanja Vidic three minutes after Rooney’s 63 rd minute opener for a bookable foul on Gabriel Giurgiu — balanced out by referee Felix Brych’s equally bizarre decision to dismiss Milan Perendija for an 89th minute foul on Javier Hernandez — denied United a comfortable end to a below-par performance.
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