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Manchester United 1-0 Birmingham City
Match Reports, 15:56, August 16, 2009 ,
Wayne Rooney gave Man Utd a winning start to the season with the only goal in a 1-0 win over promoted Birmingham at Old Trafford.
With the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in the summer, it was the perfect opportunity for Rooney to take centre stage and his more central role paid dividends as he pounced to score against a resolute Blues side.
Nani was released in space down the left-hand side, his cross found Rooney who headed against the far post, but as the ball bounced back he was first to react and tapped home from three yards to open his Premier League account for the season.
It was not all plain sailing for United though and Birmingham were almost level on two occasions just minutes later. First, Cameron Jerome cut inside and fired right footed from the edge of the area, the merest of deflections off Paul Scholes taking the ball just wide past a beaten Ben Foster. Then from the resulting corner franck Queudrue rose highest at the near post to head towards goal only for Patrice Evra to clear off the line.
Birmingham substitute Christian Benitez came close to equalising with just over ten minutes remaining, but Foster managed to turn his effort around the post to keep United in front.
Michael Owen came on for his United league debut and should have scored in injury-time when Rooney sent him clean through on goal, but his effort was turned away by the boot of Joe Hart.