Champions League - Manchester United 3 Panathinaikos 1

Manchester United cashed in as Panathinaikos wasted several good first half chances to upset them with Sheringham and Scholes steering them to victory.

Sheringham hit his 14th goal of the season in the 46th minute after United had spent the first half looking poor after Ryan Giggs was ruled out of action with a recurrence of his hamstring problem.

A simple move went through the visiting defence after a long ball forward by goalkeeper Barthez was flicked through by Dwight Yorke for Sheringham to smack the ball into the bottom right hand corner.

Paul Scholes then fluffed a chance and the Greek side revived their chances with a deserved equaliser.

In the 63rd minute the impressive Giorgios Karagounis swerved a free kick into the corner of the net from thirty metres and Panathinaikos were able to go back to their possession game.

Beckham and Scholes forced good saves from Nikopolidis and the Greek side were starting to think of holding the draw when Mickael Silvestre created a goal from nothing.

The French defender raided down the wing and cut inside to advance into the penalty area and hit a low shot which Nikopolidis had to dive and save but he palmed the ball into the path of Scholes who struck in the 80th minute winner.

Scholes produced a last minute chip over Nikopolidis from the edge of the penalty area to seal the win with a brilliant piece of skill.

Panathinaikos dominated the first half as United suffered withdrawal symptoms in the absence of Ryan Giggs.

The winger's absence threw United's performance into stark relief.

He really is the key to their best moves and without him the team floundered with David Beckham being used as the sole source of chances for the two strikers with Dwight Yorke's showing adding to the concerns that he has lost a lot of ability recently to lead the attack for United.

Time and again the United players would turn to send the ball to the left wing but find nobody there and least of all the dynamic Giggs.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson decided not to directly replace Giggs in the side so United had no left side presence at all and the Athens club romped forward to take charge of the game.

They passed United into the ground as United chased the ball around but could not get control of it. Panathinaikos should have scored three times in the first half.

The Premiership leaders were fielding the same defence that collapsed last month at Eindhoven and United have to thank Fabien Barthez for saving them three times from the Greek attacks with their back line nowhere to be seen.

As early as the third minute the Greek side were looking to get through the defence which was playing a shaky offside trap.

In the 10th minute Krzysztof Warzycha was clean through but wrongly ruled offside but seconds later the Polish club record scorer for Panathinaikos helped strike partner Nikolaos Liberopoulos to get in a shot that Barthez saved with his legs.

Warzycha had his team's best chance in the 23rd minute when he went one-on-one with Barthez but fired at the French star's legs.

David Beckham created United's best chance of the half when his chip to the far post was missed by goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis and Teddy Sheringham could only steer his header over the cross bar.

Barthez was the saviour again in the last few seconds when he again diverted a Liberopoulos drive away from goal and United could go in at half time well and truly off the hook as Sheringham was about to prove.