Mark Lawrenson's view

By Mark Lawrenson Match of the Day pundit

It was a very good performance at this stage of the Champions League from Manchester United against Roma, especially bearing in mind they lost Nemanja Vidic after 30 minutes.

There had been worries about the hostile atmosphere because of what has happened at the Stadio Olimpico in the past, but instead we saw a very average Roma team, albeit without Francesco Totti.

Apart from the first 15 to 20 minutes of the second half, they never really put Manchester United under pressure.

Roma could not contain the threat of Rooney and Ronaldo

That said, it was very difficult for the home team because they had to cope with the constant threat of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

They never committed everybody forward because of that threat - the duo are fantastic weapons for Alex Ferguson.

Ronaldo's goal was just outstanding. He is fantastic in the air because he leaps so well - I've seen him score headers for Portugal from similar positions.

Once he took off from his run, as long as the ball was perfect - which it was from Paul Scholes - there was nothing to stop him from scoring.

Captain Rio Ferdinand's performance was also immense.

Whenever the ball needed clearing out of United's penalty area, inevitably it was him who did it.

And the omens now for Manchester United look very, very good indeed.

With Barcelona winning against Schalke in Germany, it looks like a Barcelona v Manchester United semi-final.

Barcelona are a team not playing particularly well at the moment and there were demonstrations after the weekend's 3-2 defeat by Real Betis in Seville after they were 2-0 up.

Ronaldinho looks like he has lost his love of playing for the team, Samuel Eto'o has been in and out and Henry hasn't been playing particularly well either.

Defensively, you always fancy scoring a goal against them as well.

The likes of Rooney, Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Ryan Giggs and Nani et al would fancy their chances against a Barcelona team that defends as poorly as they have done recently.

Mark Lawrenson was speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live