Man Utd win war of nerves to reach quarter-finals

Manchester United 2 Marseille 1. Two goals from Javier Hernandez secured Manchester United's passage into the last eight of the Champions League, the fifth season in succession that they've reached the quarter-finals of the competition. It was also United's 150th win in the Champions League – and Alex Ferguson's 100th – though it was a far from convincing performance by the Premier League leaders.

Nonetheless, Wayne Rooney was in bullish mood afterwards, declaring that United had the self-belief to win May's final at Wembley. "We will be confident we can win whoever we get in the next round," said the 25-year-old England striker. "If you are going to win this tournament you have to play anyone - and beat them. It was a tough game, we knew Marseille are a big physical team, but we came through and just deserved to in the end."

Though Rooney failed to get on the scoresheet, his partnership with Hernandez is developing into a potent one and the pair combined after five minutes to give United the lead. Having swapped passes with Ryan Giggs, Rooney fired in a low cross from the right and the little Mexican was on hand to prod home his 15th goal of the season.

It was the perfect start for United but they struggled to impose themselves on the French side for the rest of the half with the absence through injury of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic lending an air of fragility to their back four. The departure of right-back John O'Shea with a hamstring injury on 36 minutes further weakened the United defence.

Andre-Pierre Gignac and Souleymane Diawara both missed glorious chances to level for the visitors in the first-half with the latter heading wide from point-blank range after finding himself in acres of space as Taye Taiwo's corner swung in.

Marseille continued to create openings in the second half and Gabriel Heinze – a former United player - should have hit the back of the net when he rose to meet Lucho's corner but his effort went wide.

The French were made to pay for their profligacy on 75 minutes when Hernandez scored his second, latching on to the end of a Ryan Giggs cross, only for Wes Brown to head into his own net seven minutes later to ensure an anxious finale for the Old Trafford faithful. "It was nervy because we kept having players taken off with injuries," admitted Alex Ferguson, who also saw Rafael limp off with a hamstring injury. "We had a lack of experience which could have cost us, but we held on."

Asked which club he'd like to draw in the next round of the tournament, Ferguson replied: "We've been through this over the years and said 'We hope we get this or that', but you never get who you want. We've had some great experiences in the Champions League over the years. It's the best tournament of all, the one you try to win again." ·