By David Hobbs
August 24 2005

Manchester United have secure their spot in tomorrow's Champions League draw in Monte Carlo following a 3-0 victory against Debrecen in Hungary.

Debrecen 0

Manchester United 3
Gabriel Heinze X2 (20, 60)
Kieran Richardson (65)

The scoreline matched United's home result as Gabriel Heinze struck an unexpected double in either half. Kieran Richardson rounded off the scoring with a sweet shot after the hour mark. Alan Smith started in Roy Keane's holding midfield place.

Substitute Richardson was called into early action after Gary Neville had to be driven off the pitch with what seemed to be a groin injury. 

Sir Alex Ferguson's initial tactics lasted just 13 minutes as Wes Brown switched to right-back in Neville's place and Heinze partnered Rio Ferdinand in defence. However, the decision made by Ferguson, Carlos Queiroz and Mike Phelan proved successful.

Gabriel Heinze broke the deadlock minutes after converting to central defence with a powerful, downwards header at the far post to meet Paul Scholes' corner.

United, parading their new blue away kit, decide to keep testing Debrecen despite leading 4-0 on aggregate but couldn't find another opening until after the interval. Sandor had two opportunities before the break, coming close from a free-kick and corner.

Heinze doubled the lead with another header on the hour mark courtesy of Ryan Giggs' corner before Kieran Richardson rubbed salt in their wounds 5 minutes later with a beautifully executed shot from the edge of the area.

Debrecen did hit the post in the second half but that wasn't enough to deny United a place in the Champions League proper. 

Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted with the performance and result. "We had to contend with a difficult pitch tonight but our discipline was very good," he said.

"We passed the ball well for most of the game and winning 3-0 away from home is a very good scoreline."

Final Score: Debrecen 0 - 3 Manchester United

Debrecen: Csernyanszki; Kiss, Halmosi, Eger, Dombi (Szatmari, 57); Vukmir, Mate, Sandor, Boor (Madar, 78); Kerekes, Bogdanovic (Brnovic, 46).
Substitutes Not Used: Tomic, Komlosi, Bernath, Jeremias.

Manchester United: Van der Sar; Neville (Richardson, 13), Ferdinand, Brown, Heinze; Ronaldo, Fletcher (Miller, 61), Scholes (Bardsley, 46), Smith, Giggs; van Nistelrooy.
Substitutes Not Used: Howard, Rooney, Park, Pique.

Refereed By: M Busacca (Switzerland)