Manchester United topped their Champions League group thanks to a forward who seemed in danger of dropping out of sight. Michael Owen has often been a fringe figure at the club but there will be a surge of acclaim for this hat-trick. It is going be enjoyable to see if Fabio Capello is ready to check the praise for an eminent striker.
The England manager usually has a pained expression when asked about an attacker who turns 30 next Monday. It is implausible that Capello is conducting a vendetta but he is resolute in his refusal to extol Owen merely for scoring in some match or other. This occasion, all the same, was decidedly different.
Wolfsburg, who attacked with increasing conviction, were still causing mayhem in stoppage time but Owen was ruthless on the counter-attack, running from near the halfway line and dinking the ball home stylishly once he had tricked the goalkeeper Diego Benaglio into committing himself. It was the act of a predator with greater sharpness and more relish for the game than we have seen for a while.
This match, a curmudgeon might object, was designed for Owen. Wolfsburg neither defend well nor acted as if it could ever be a priority. After they had equalised the visitors restored their advantage when the substitute Gabriel Obertan beat several opponents slickly before setting up Owen at the far post in the 83rd minute.
Armin Veh's team have been eliminated by CSKA Moscow, victors away to Besiktas, although that outcome may yet come under review since two of the Russian club's players, Sergei Ignashevich and Aleksei Berezutski, were suspended from yesterday's action because of failed drugs tests. The pair could be deemed to have made a material difference in previous group matches.
While others may now wrangle, United left Wolfsburg with an unclouded contentment. They had been obliged to pick a makeshift team in which several individuals were out of position, yet they recorded a victory even if they also had to display a gift for riding their luck. It is compelling to watch a side stripped by injury of its normal defence. The notion of converting the midfielder Michael Carrick into a sweeper holds some attraction when you imagine him playing passes like a libero of yesteryear. He was not left in peace often enough to perform in that sort of considered manner but Carrick did stand in the centre of a back three.
That 3-5-2 formation is seen only sporadically and its presence gave this match a touch of the costume drama. Even so, the issues were contemporary and United's situation could have become thorny when Carrick attempted a challenge inside the area after 13 minutes and connected with Makoto Hasebe instead of the ball.
Bjorn Kuipers, the Dutch referee, took no action. Wolfsburg might have realised then that they had a daunting assignment here. All the same there was a first-half spell when Wolfsburg outflanked those three United centre-backs but Andrea Barzagli and Zvjezdan Misimovic, in the space of three minutes, each sent a header off target when unmarked.
The wastefulness was penalised. Three minutes from the interval Nani, whose ineffectiveness may have led Wolfsburg to forget his existence, crossed right-footed from the left and Owen headed comfortably past Benaglio. The predicament of the home players did at least clear their minds. Waiting and hoping could no longer be elements in the attempt to progress in the tournament. Before the interval Veh's side had been a disappointment to neutrals as well as a provocation to their followers.
That situation was rectified to a degree with an equaliser that demonstrated the weakness of an ad hoc defence. The Wolfsburg left-back Marcel Schafer got to the by-line and his cross was headed in strongly by an unmarked Edin Dzeko.Until then the Bosnia striker had looked unworthy of the adoration extended to him and his fellow forward Grafite by the home crowd.
While the noise levels rose steeply, the quality of the game fluctuated. That was an indication that Wolfsburg, for all their intent, lacked the quality to belabour even this United selection for long. It also assisted Sir Alex Ferguson's men that the final ball from their opponents was sometimes loose enough to release the pressure.
The principal alterations lay in Wolfsburg's rising share of possession and the increased time they spent in United's half. In the 71sth minute Hasebe got the ball to Grafite but the angle prevented the striker from doing any more than force Tomasz Kuszczak to concede a corner. It was United, thanks to Owen, who would get into the best positions and make the most of them.
With his assistance an improvised line-up had beaten the reigning Bundesliga champions away from home. No one would have been unduly surprised by the result but it still demonstrated the potency of United in this tournament.
