The Old Country Waltz

It's Giggs taking most of the plaudits today, with an honourable mention for Lindegaard.

The Telegraph set the tone with a love letter to Ryan Giggs posing as a match report:

Ryan Giggs turns 38 in two months’ time and is old enough to be the father of more than half of his Manchester United team-mates, but any thoughts of his retirement being accelerated by the kids were banished with a stunning, record-breaking goal against Benfica.

It is 17 years to the day since he scored the first of his 27 Champions League goals, when he netted twice in a 4-2 victory against IFK Gothenburg, and Giggs eclipsed Raúl from the record books by becoming the first man to score in 16 seasons in Europe’s premier competition.

Already the oldest goalscorer in Champions League history prior to this game, having scored in last season’s semi-final victory against Schalke in Germany, he raised the bar by a further five months with his latest contribution, a 20-yard left-foot strike beyond goalkeeper Artur.

And a brief note on Lindegaard:

United owed their point to goalkeeper Lindegaard as much as Giggs, however. He denied Gaitán and Nolito with crucial saves during the final 15 minutes as Benfica chased a victory, yet he will make way for De Gea against Chelsea on Sunday.

The Independent's Ian Herbert writes a similar love letter, but his match report is most notable for the ridiculous comments on De Gea:

Ferguson's caustic response to TV journalist Kelly Cates' question about goalkeeper David de Gea suggested this was one he saw coming. Though De Gea's redundant afternoon in Saturday's 5-0 demolition of Bolton kept his reputation intact, he has yet to excel under the kind of pressure he will encounter when Chelsea arrive at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Anders Lindegaard, meanwhile, has been the best United goalkeeper in pre-season and seized his big moment last night by palming away a shot from the Argentine Nicolas Gaitan and, even better, saving low, athletically and instinctively from the dangerous Spanish substitute Nolito. The manager does not feel he has a selection consideration before Sunday but this performance heaps more pressure on De Gea.

 What?!  Write off all the past games De Gea's played in as not being pressured; keep a clean sheet and have it claimed that that's only because he had nothing to do.  I think Sir Alex should have a go at this idiot.

The Mail continue their policy of making match reports unreadable by having photos after every sentence just about.  Their report compares Giggs to Dennis Law:

Of all the things Ryan Giggs thought he may achieve when he made his Manchester United debut two decades ago, scoring more goals in European competition than Denis Law was surely not among them.

Law, let’s remember, played for one of the great and formative United teams. He features in a

statue alongside George Best and Bobby Charlton standing outside Old Trafford. He was, most importantly of all, a centre forward.

As well as Giggs and Lindegaard, The Guardian's report praises Smalling and Jones:

This was also a night to savour for Anders Lindegaard, the Danish goalkeeper whose promise has been largely overlooked amid the scrutiny on David de Gea this season. With the Spaniard rested for Sunday's Premier League visit of Chelsea, Lindegaard excelled. Two outstanding late saves, followed by a glaring miss from the substitute Nolito, contributed greatly to an important point against arguably United's closest rivals in Group C. ... It required the excellence of Giggs and, at the opposite end of the pitch and age-scale, several vital interceptions from Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans to deny the Portuguese club a merited interval lead.

Quotes from Sir Alex summed up here, on the keeping situation:

"We were always getting to the moment when we were going to share that. David will play against Chelsea on Sunday and possibly Anders will play against Leeds on Tuesday, depending on how I see the situation in terms of Ben Amos, who needs some game time also. There are opportunities to spread that load because coming over to the English game, it's such a competitive intense league for a young goalkeeper. There will come a time when I need to give him a break. This was a good moment because he had a fantastic game on Saturday, so this was a nice time to give him a break."

And on Berba:

"It's hard because of the number of strikers we have," the manager said. "Michael Owen is there and we've got [Federico] Macheda and [Mame Biram] Diouf too. It's not easy. [Danny] Welbeck will be back the week after next and it's not easy. Dimitar has been training really well, his attitude has been spot-on, brilliant, really good, and he'll get his game time, there's no question about that, as the season goes on because we're into European football, the League Cup, the league games. There are plenty of occasions." 

 Looking forward to Sunday, there's some quotes from Chelsea's Ivanovic:

"This is the first big, big test of our team and how we've improved, and we're going there trying to show our best football and to secure a good result," said Ivanovic, who is likely to partner John Terry in the centre of defence. "United have started very well this season and have improved as a group. But, if you remember, we started last season the same way. It will be the hardest game for us until now and we will have to show 100% of our power. Psychologically, for both teams, it's a very important game."

And one other story, The Sun reckon that Burnley want Paul Pogba on loan, it might happen after the Carling Cup game they say.