Good evening everybody. If you don't know much about Manchester United's Romanian opponents this evening and aren't lucky enough to have walking eastern European football know-all Jonathan Wilson on speed-dial, you could do an awful lot worse than read this informative profile written by my colleague Louise Taylor.

In summary, the Romanian champions hail from a steel-producing port on the Danube situated 150 miles north-east of Bucharest, but are playing their home Champions League matches in the capital's 55,600-capacity National Stadium, which is, if assorted journalistic grumbles on Twitter are to be believed, a 10-minute, £100 taxi-ride from the city centre.

With no sponsors and a squad of players that earn an average wage of about £30,000 per annum each, Galati are managed by Dorinel Munteanu, twice a winner (and once a goalscorer) for Romania against England during an international career that spanned 134 appearances for his country. This is Galati first season in the Champions League and they have yet to secure a point, having lost 2-1 away to Basel and 1-0 at home to Benfica in their opening two Group C matches.

Otelul Galati: Grahovac, Rapa, Perendija, Antal, Frunza,
Costin, Filip, Salageanu, Neagu, Giurgiu, Punosevac.
Subs: Branet, Skubic, Iorga, Ilie, Sarghi, Pena, Viglianti.

Man Utd: Lindegaard, Fabio Da Silva, Vidic, Smalling, Evra,
Valencia, Anderson, Carrick, Nani, Rooney, Hernandez.
Subs: De Gea, Jones, Evans, Owen, Berbatov, Welbeck, Fletcher.

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

Interesting fact: As a football club, Galati is worth £18m and assembled its Champions League squad at a cost of £500,000. By comparison, Manchester United are worth £1.1bn and assembled theirs for £241m.

How they'll line up: Otelul Galati will go with their manager's favoured 4-1-2-3, with Ioan Filip screening the back four and midfielders Ionut Neagu and Gabriel Giurgiu playing behind a front three of Liviu Antal, Bratislav Punosvac and Sorin Frunzai. Manchester United will play a 4-4-1-1, with Wayne Rooney playing off the shoulder of Javier Hernandez in front of a midfield in which Antonio Valencia and Nani bookend a central pairing of Anderson and Michael Carrick on the right and left respectively.

Not long now: With no airport and not enough five-star hotels for Uefa's liking in Otelal, Galati have been forced to play their Champions League matches in their country's National Stadium, which looks fairly sparsely populated tonight. It's a 300-mile round trip from Galati to Bucharest, so it's a shame, but no surprise, that plenty of Galati fans haven't travelled. That said, their average gate is 7,000 in a stadium that holds twice that many people, so who's to say they haven't all turned up?

The teams line up for the Champions League music: Galati wear predominantly white shirts with red and blue stripes, white shorts and white socks. United's players wear their away kit of navy and royal blue stripes, navy shorts and navy socks.

1 min: United kick off playing from left to right in front of a crowd of about 25,000, the vast majority of them who appear to be supporting them. I'm not sure if it's the camera angle or not, but the pitch looks massive.

2 min: Antonio Valencia embarks on the first sortie of note, galloping down the right wing, before sending the ball inside to Fabio. He sends the ball out to Patrice Evra on the left flank and is penalised for being offside moments later when the return pass is sent into the Galati penalty area.

3 min: Good news for Manchester United. Villarreal have just gone one up against Manchester City after three minutes of play at the Etihad Stadium.

5 min: Meanwhile back in Bucharest's National Stadium, there's not a great deal going on. United are dominating possession as much as you'd expect, but haven't created any noteworthy chances yet.

7 min: Nani attempts to dink a delicate cross from the left flank towards Wayne Rooney at the near post, but the sends the ball straight into the arms of Galati goalkeeper Branko Grahovac, a self-confessed Manchester United fan.

10 min: Deep in Galati territory, Manchester United right-back Fabio takes a throw-in, chucking the ball towards Valencia. The return pass is fast and loose and trundles out over the line and wide.

11 min: United's wingers, Nani and Valencia, are really hugging the touchlines tonight, pulling Galati full-backs Cornel Rapa and Adrian Salageanu very wide and leaving huge spaces for Hernandez, Rooney and assorted United midfielders and defenders to exploit.

13 min: Galati have their first shot on goal when a sloppy pass from Nemanja Vidic goes straight to Bratislav Punosevac, who tries his luck from distance. His long-range effort is on target, but doesn't trouble Anders Lindegaard.

14 min: Anderson tries a shot from about 25 yards, but his effort is wide.

14 min: The ball drops nicely for Bratislav Punosevic on the edge of the Manchester United penalty area, but he snatches at his shot and scuffs the ball straight at Anders Lindegaard, who gathers gratefully. Liviu Antal had been screaming for the pass to Punosevic's left, but you can't really blame the young striker for eschewing that option and having a pop when he had a clear shot at goal.

18 min: Anders Lindegaard charges to the edge of his area to hack the ball down the field, but his hoofed clearance cannons off Nemanja Vidic's back before eventually bouncing to safety. That ricochet could have ended up anywhere.

21 min: I should tell you what's been happening, but I'm not going to because I don't know. While you were waiting impatiently for an update, I was spending valuable match-watching time cropping and uploading a nice photograph of the National Stadium in Bucharest.

26 min: Galati win a free-kick wide on the left and a long way up, which Sorin Frunzai swings into the mixer at the edge of the Manchester United penalty area. There's a huge appeal for a penalty, after the ball strikes Smalling's arm, but none is forthcoming. United clear, but only as far as the holding midfielder Ioan Filip, who slaloms past three United players before sending an excellent 20-yard effort a yard or two over the bar.

28 min: Sorin Frunza times a run between two Manchester United defenders beautifully and controls a pass over the top from midfield on his chest, only to be incorrectly flagged for offside. After being totally outclassed for the opening 20 minutes but managing not to concede, Galati are starting to show a bit of confidence.

30 min: Manchester United win a free-kick about 25 yards from goal, a smidge right of centre. Rooney, Anderson and Nani stand over it, but it's the Englishman who steps up. His effort curls around the wall, but Grahovac does well to get down to his left and scramble the ball away.

35 min: The ball's knocked out of play by a Manchester United player as Ionut Neagu goes down injured, despite the fact that not a great deal appears to be wrong with him. That's a real pet peeve of mine - if I was the manager of a football team I'd fine any of my players who put the ball out of play so an opponent went down injured ... unless they actually heard the snap of splintering bone as their opponent went to ground.

39 min: Wayne Rooney pings a diagonal pass from deep out to Antonio Valencia on the right touchline, as Manchester United continue probing and passing in and around the edges of the Galati penalty area. For all their dominance they've yet to score, but they've looked pretty comfortable so far.

40 min: Javier Hernandez gives and goes to Wayne Rooney, but the return pass down the inside right channel isn't great and allows left-back Adrian Salageanu to hack clear.

42 min: Michael Carrick runs on to a pull-back from the by-line and sends a surface-to-air screamer fizzing inches over the crossbar.

43 min: With the two Galati centre-backs backing off him, Patrice Evra sprints towards the edge of the penalty area and shoots. His low drive dips in front of the goalkeeper, Grahovac, but doesn't trouble him unduly.

44 min: Galati win a corner, which is swung in from the left. Liviu Antal beats Patrice Evra in the air and heads over the bar.

45 min: Another half-chance goes a-begging for Galati, after being spoiled by Bratislav Punosevac. Despite falling backwards, the young striker selfishly took a wild swing at a breaking ball from the edge of the penalty area, when it was dropping perfectly for his team-mate Antal. He was charging on to it, clearly measuring up a volley. Antal reacts with a mixture of exasperation and fury, having obviously fancied his chances of opening the scoring. He was certainly better placed to do so than his glory-hunting team-mate.

Half-time: Manchester United go in at half-time having dominated but failed to score. There's no doubt that Dorinel Munteanu will be the happier of the two managers. His side has defended stoutly against a Manchester United team that hasn't got out of second gear yet. As the game has progressed, Galati have looked increasingly confident and dangerous on their rare sorties into United territory. Elsewhere in the group Basel are a goal down at home to Benfica.

On Sky Sports punditry's Dwight Yorke is wearing a knitted tie and a shiny suit. I'm not sure why they have him on, because even by the fairly low standards of his fellow "experts", he spouts the blandest of platitudes. How difficult can it be to come up with just one amusing observation or interesting insight that those of us who've never played football for Manchester Unite might not have been able to provide?

Second half: Otelul Galati get the second half under way. There are no changes on either side.

48 min: In an email entitled "crack of bone - funny story" Bruce Cooper writes: "I was playing on my week-night pub team and one of my friends went down injured," he says. "In an effort to clear the clear the ball out from the middle of the pitch I ended up scuffing it and hit him right in the face. It was really funny at the time until we found out he tore his ACL. My wife (and his employee) didn't find it funny either the next day at the office when a limping boss called her out for having a callous husband. From now on I gently guide it out of bounds."

48 min: Nani goes down injured under a very bad challenge from Galati centre-back Sergiu Costin, who doesn't even get a ticking-off, let alone the booking he deserved.

50 min: There's a sense of urgency about United's players that was conspicuous by its absence from their play in the first half. They're rushing to take throw-ins and free-kicks, while their manager provides his unique brand of "encouragement" from the touchline.

51 min: Galati right-back Cornel Rapa gets booked for an illegal block on Nani that was nowhere near as bad as his team-mate Costin's hack from a couple of minute's previously.

53 min: Corner for Manchester United, which Anderson takes. The delivery is good, but goalkeeper Grahovac punches the ball towards the penalty spot and a defender helps it on its way.

55 min: With Galati breaking on the counter, Michael Carrick dispossesses Liviu Antal with a perfectly clean tackle, but gets booked anyway.

56 min: Galati Perendija gets booked for a nip on Wayne Rooney's ankles. That was a fair cop. Interestingly, Perendija is Galati's record signing - he cost them £100,000. That's his 10th booking in 13 matches this season.

59 min: Manchester United right-back Fabio goes down injured after appearing to get his studs caught in the turf. He doesn't look like he'll be able to continue.

61 min: Fabio walks to the touchline, has a drink and gingerly flexes his right leg before returning to action.

63 min: From the left hand side of the Galati penalty area, Nani picks out Rooney, standing with his back to goal about 14 yards out. He spins on the proverbial sixpence and drags a shot inches wide of the left upright.

Penalty for Manchester United. Rooney crosses from the left, Sergfiu Costin handles inexplicably and immediately puts his head in his hands. The referee blows his whistle and points to the spot.

GOAL! Otelal Galati 0-1 Manchester United (Rooney 63pen) Rooney dispatches a pretty unstoppable outswinger into the bottom right-hand corner, having sent goalkeeper Branko Grahovac the wrong way.

66 min: Eh? Nemanja Vidic gets sent off for a late lunge on Gabriel Giurgiu. He looks absolutely astonished when the increasingly card-happy referee reached for his shirt pocket and issued him with a straight red. Yes, he went in high and late, but the tackle was neither reckless nor dangerous and a yellow card seemed a far more appropriate punishment.

69 min: Their tails very much up after Vidic's dismissal, Otelal Galati work the ball to Liviu Antal at the far post and he tries to volley it goalwards from about 10 yards. Michael Carrick saves United with an excellent block.

70 min: I've just seen a replay of the foul that led to the Manchester United penalty and it was extraordinarily dumb - a moment of madness from Sergiu Costin, who was facing his own goal on the edge of the penalty area and deliberately snaked his arm out to handle a Rooney cross that was heading in the general direction of Javier Hernandez.

72 min: Manchester United substitution: Jonny Evans replaces Antonio Valencia and slots in to the Vidic-shaped hole in the Manchester United back four. Nani swaps wings, moving over to the right. Rooney goes wide on the left.

74 min: Otelal Galati substitution: Ionut Neagu off, Marius Pena on. That's a striker for a midfielder. And not just any striker, the son of Steaua Bucharest legend George Pena. No? Truth be told, I'd never heard of him either.

75 min: Manchester United substitution: Fabio off, Phil Jones on. The Brazilian takes so long to trudge off the pitch that the referee feels compelled to chivvy him along.

77 min: "German refs just don't like United! Plain and simple!" writes Edward Lee, without offering a shred of evidence to back his outlandish claim. So that's German refs, the southern based media, the BBC, people from Leeds, Pope Benedict XVI and the Tories who all dislike United. Which is strange, because they're usually so lovable.

80 min: United win a free-kick about 10 yards outside the Galati penalty area, almost dead centre. Anderson wins the argument over who should take it, but his subsequent shot suggests he may have dealt his chances of emerging victorious from the next one a hammer-blow. His effort is weak and bounces straight in front of the keeper.

82 min: Bratislav Punosevac escapes from the close attention of his marker Jonny Evans, to get on the end of a cross from deep and volley wide from about 10 yards. That was a bona fide chance and, not for the first time tonight, he should have done better.

84 min: "I also knacked my ACL on the weekend and can confirm it's not funny," writes Richard Stirzaker. "You'd have approved though, as the opposition played on for about 15 seconds and tried to score while I (the goalkeeper) was in a heap on the floor in obvious pain. Bastards."

87 min: Otelul Galati have clearly decided to take the law into their own hands. They bring on a fellow named Vigilante in place of their star striker Punosevac. Iliu also comes on, in place of Sorin Frunza.

89 min: Another red card! Milan Perendija picks up his 11th yellow card in 13 games this season and his second of the evening. He trudges off down the tunnel to think about what he's done.

Another penalty for United! In injury-time, on the left-hand side of the penalty area, Wayne Rooney cleverly invites the trip from Liviu Antal and goes down like a sack of spuds. The referee blows his whistle and points to the spot again.

GOAL! Otelul Galati 0-2 Manchester United (Rooney 90+1pen) Rooney steps up again and buries the ball in the same place as last time - the bottom right-hand corner.

90+3 min: Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeep! Referee Felix Brych brings what was for him a very busy second half to an end. Manchester have won the three points without particularly impressing on a night that almost certainly turned out to be a lot more difficult than they were anticipating. Elsewhere in the group, Benfica's 2-0 win over Basle means that United now sit second in the group at the halfway stage with a home match against tonight's opposition next on their Champions League itinerary.