United four too good

Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney, with his seventh goal in six games for club and country, gave United a flying start before Cristiano Ronaldo's double wrapped up a victory far more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.

Given the abject nature of Dynamo Kiev's defending, it is hard to see anything other than a United win when the two sides meet again at Old Trafford in a fortnight, a result that would see Sir Alex Ferguson's men book a place in the knock-out phase with two games to spare.

Indeed, the only complaint from the Red Devils chief on a night which saw United complete their biggest European away win in nine years, must have been that his side conceded twice as Diogo Rincon and Ismael Bangoura found the net for Dynamo to keep things interesting.

After losing Paul Scholes to a knee injury sustained in training and Patrice Evra to a calf strain suffered in the warm-up, the build-up was hardly smooth for the visitors. However, it became apparent from quite an early stage that Dynamo Kiev - without a point from their opening two games - were ill equipped to cope with the Red Devils' attacking threat.

Ferdinand opened the scoring with a ninth-minute header after he was afforded too much space by the Kiev defence. It was the £29.1million star's first European goal in 42 attempts for United and means his season's tally of three equals the best seasonal return of his career.

England team-mate Rooney is far more prolific of course and Dynamo presumably had heard about his impending birthday given the present they provided him with as he tapped home Wes Brown's low cross to maintain his impressive run of form.

Ronaldo was the architect of that effort, breaking from inside his half. However, as the Portugal winger should have been protecting the post Rincon's header crept into to hand Dynamo a 33rd-minute lifeline, Ronaldo was making up for his own error when he nodded home United's third. He could probably have controlled Ryan Giggs' cross and rolled it in with his head such was the non-existent nature of Dynamo's defence.

Had Dynamo been awarded what appeared a certain penalty when substitute Artem Milevskiy tumbled under Nemanja Vidic's challenge, the hosts might have made a game of it. Instead, Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai ruled in United's favour - dubiously it seemed on TV replays - and then gave the Red Devils a spot-kick, after extensive consultation with his assistant, after Goran Gavrancic had stuck out an elbow to block Tevez's cross.

Rooney, who failed miserably with his hat-trick attempt at Villa Park on Saturday, handed over responsibility to Ronaldo, who promptly sent Shovkovskiy the wrong way. Bangoura wrapped up the scoring 10 minutes from time and while the departure of a seemingly uninjured Edwin van der Sar raised eyebrows not long afterwards, United coasted home.