Good afternoon, folks. You are more than welcome along to our big Champions League Tuesday where we’ll be keeping our good eye on Manchester United to see if they can bounce back from defeat at home to Spurs.

Here are the teams for the night: United have named a potent attacking threat, should be interesting.

CFR Cluj-Napoca: Mario Felgueiras, Sepsi, Cadu, Rada, Ivo Pinto, Sougou, Aguirregaray, Muresan, Camora, Bastos, Kapetanos.

Subs: Stancioiu, Diogo Valente, Nicoara, Maftei, Piccolo, Bjelanovic, Luis Alberto.

Man Utd: De Gea, Da Silva, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Cleverley, Anderson, Fletcher, Rooney, Hernandez, van Persie.

Subs: Lindegaard, Nani, Welbeck, Powell, Kagawa, Buttner, Wootton.

Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)

Well, the teams are on the pitch, UTV presenters are cramming Transylvania puns and references in to beat the band: all we need now is….

KICK OFF. Ah, there is is. United wearing all white shaping up in a 4-3-3 – Cleverley, Fletcher and Anderson behind Hernandez, van Persie and Rooney.

All three appear to be freely rotating positions at this early stage.

Chance! United instantly look dodgy off a set-piece. Not the fault of De Gea, but an attacker was allowed ghost in at the near post. His header was glanced well wide of the back stick.

If Alex Ferguson sent his side to keep the game quiet early on, then they are succeeding. The visitors, despite the one shaky moment, are dominating possession and have showed some promising link play in the final third.

GOAL: CLUJ 1 – 0 UNITED (Kapetanos ’14)

Boom! No sooner had I written the previous post, Cluj broke downt he right flank through Modou Sougou. He whipped a low cross into the box were Pantelis Kapetanos was arriving with a clinical, sweeping first time finish from 12 yards to De Gea’s left.

The visitors do still look the better side. A slick move between Rooney and Hernandez ends with the Mexican laying off a pass to Anderson who has a stabbing attempt at a side-foot curler. Needless to say; it was wide.

So often we’ve seen United pass and pass, attempting to win these games in third gear. Some times it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Van Persie goes slightly closer than Anderson with an instinctive sanp-shot volley.

Substitution: A blow for the home side.  Modou Sougou is forced off through injury in the 24th minutes. Replaced by Luis Alberto. Sougou has looked lively, going close with that header off the early corner before providing the assist for the opening goal.

Wow, a quick check around the other scorelines shows that, on top of Cluj leading United, Bayern trail BATE Borisov and Shakhtar Donetsk lead Juventus in Turin.

In more predictable news: Barcelona lead Benfica.

GOAL: Cluj 1 – 1 Manchester United (van Persie ’29)

The hosts claim offside, but Robin van Persie has recorded his first European goal for his new club. The Dutchman found himself free, meeting a Rooney free-kick 10 yards from goal and diverting it (via his shoulder, I think) up and over Mario Felgueiras.

GOAL: FC NORDSJAELLAND 0-1 CHELSEA (Juan Mata ’33)

And in the same instant, Juventus have levelled it up against Shakhtar. Football!

United carve another opportunity for van Persie, but they are also leaving big gaps in front of the back four. Twice in recent minutes the home side have found ample room to run at the white-shirted central defenders – a slightly better ball on both occasions would have given them a one-on-one chance.

After winning a corner, Tom Cleverly makes a small mockery of Alex Ferguson’s claim that foreign players dive more, appealing for a penalty after a brief tussle just inside the box.

Free-kick chance for United taken by Rooney 25 -yards from goal. He gets the required dip, and it bounces inside the six yard line, but it is straight at the ‘keeper.

Wow, 45 minutes have flown by.

HALF TIME: CFR Cluj 1 – 1 Manchester United

A brief moment of injury time later and we have the whistle to mark the intermission. Ferguson must be hugely disgruntled to see his side fall behind early AGAIN.

However, unlike Spurs on Saturday, they have managed a timely equaliser and their opponents look as though they could crumble under a little more pressure.

Stand by, here come the half time scores from elsewhere.

BATE Borisov 1 – 0 Bayern Munich

Benfica 0 – 1 Barcelona

Galatasaray 0 – 1 Braga

Juventus 1 – 1 Shakhtar Donetsk

Valencia 1 – 0 Lille

And, of course, Celtic pulled off an incredible 3-2 win away to Spartak Moscow earlier.

SECOND HALF:

We’re underway in Romania. On his way down the tunnel, Alex Ferguson told UTV: “We’re doing most things right”, but added the the goal conceded was “a shocker.”

The visitors certainly look more purposeful in the early stages of the second period. Just the manner in which they attack RVP’s corner is telling. Rooney leapt to contest a 30:70 header, it broke to Anderson on the edge of the area and he fired well over.

GOAL:  CFR Cluj 1 – 2 Manchester United (van Persie ’48)

A quite beautiful finish from Robin van Persie, latching onto to Rooney’s floated pass from the right wing. The ball drops between ‘keeper and defender onto the magic left boot.

One touch to control, flick it beyond the advancing goalkeeper.

Here’s van Persie’s equalising goal from the first half.

YouTube credit: INFootballHD

In open play there is no contest, but Cluj really fancy their chances from set-pieces.

Two corners in quick succession fly into the United six yard box, one turned clear by Ferdinand. But the ageing defender was badly positioned for the next cross which was powered on target and needed a smart save from the young Spanish ‘keeper.

Here’s RVP’s second. Gorgeous.

YouTube credit: INFootballHD

Elsewhere, all the half-time scores stand except for Barcelona, who have extended their lead in Lisbon.

That rally from the hosts has largely been quashed, United now attempting to wind this clock down with minimum fuss, keeping Cluj at arm’s length.

74 mins: Another penalty claim from United there after they raid down the left through, that man, van Persie. He has Hernandez in the middle put pulls it back to Evra bombing into the area. He arrives at the ball at the same time as the defender, referee waves the appeal away.

Would have been very soft /seen them given.

The marvellously named Joshua John has hit the post for FC Nordsjaelland, the champions hanging on at the Bridge.

Bayern still trail to Borisov, but Valencia have extended their lead at home to Lille.

Substitution. Johnny Evans, laboured looking all night with that thigh injury, is replaced by Scott Wooton on 79 minutes..

Danny Welbeck is on for Javier Hernandez just after Cluj make their second substitution on 80 minutes: Aguirregaray making way for Nicoara. And in Denmark there has been a couple of…

GOALS: FC Nordsjaelland 0 – 3 Chelsea (David Luiz ’79) (Mata ’81)

One last push now from Cluj, they lump the ball into the United area and win a corner. Some rare excitement in the second half of a game United appear capable of winning in their sleep.

The corner comes in amongst much fervour, but the white jerseys scramble clear.

Diving header from Rafael Bastos…. David De Gea was close to his best there to prevent an embarrassing equaliser. The cross in from the right was met at the corner of the six-yard-box by Bastos. His header, firm and on target at the near post., was excellently tipped away.

FULL TIME: CFR Cluj 1 – 2 Manchester United

United hang on in the end, repelling one more attack from Cluj when Wootton’s headed clearance drops on the edge of the box. Nicoara’s shot is blocked and cleared to the halfway line.

By no means a complete performance from Alex Ferguson’s side tonight, but he sets his side up to sleepwalk through this sort of fixture and they come out on the other side with three precious points.

Two games, three goals, six points. Half way to securing qualification.

Robin van Persie is the obvious choice for man of the match. A word from him is coming up.

After a little bit of sycophantic nonsense, the interviewer asks RVP if the second goal was his best in a United shirt – it wasn’t – The Dutchman responds generously: “Maybe” and when asked to gush about the pass from Boy Wonder Wayne Rooney, van Persie adds.

“Not many players can give a pass like that. It was good build-up to the goal.”

Later emphasising: “I have seven goals  now, but I’ve said it’s not about goals, it’s about winning.”

At the moment, one is going hand in hand with the other.

Well folks, it’s job done from United and job done from me.

Thanks for joining with the liveblog. Before I go, here are the full-time results from tonight’s Champions League fixtures.

Safe home.

Spartak Moscow 2 – 3 Celtic

BATE Borisov 3 – 1 Bayern Munich

Benfica 0 – 2 Barcelona

CFR Cluj-Napoca 1 – 2 Man Utd

FC Nordsjaelland 0 – 4 Chelsea

Galatasaray 0 – 2 Braga

Juventus 1 – 1 Shakhtar Donetsk

Valencia 2 – 0 Lille