Darren Fletcher's suspension for the Rome final was the one sour note on a balmy night for Manchester United
On a night of crushing superiority for Manchester United one man headed back to Old Trafford with doom in his thoughts. Convention says Darren Fletcher should be ecstatic for the team, delighted that United will defend their European title in Rome three weeks from now, but compassion demands that the game debate the severity of his suspension for bringing down Cesc Fábregas in the United penalty area with a challenge that was clumsy but hardly malicious.
History's train will move on to Italy without Fletcher, who is exactly the kind of precise, conscientious, hardened midfielder Arsenal need to find. Today the main light will shine on Cristiano Ronaldo's brilliance from set piece and in full gallop. There are days when United's fans probably convince themselves that the future would still be bright without Lionel Messi's main rival for the title of world's best player. But then he cracks in a free-kick from 35 yards and runs three-quarters the length of the pitch to put a Champions League semi-final beyond doubt.
Ronaldo's virtuosity, Fletcher's gnawing misfortune: these were two faces of United's commanding 3-1 win. Only if the Italian official, Roberto Rosetti, reviews the tape of Fletcher's tackle, in which he won the ball, and sees a refereeing error can he hope for salvation. In that case Rosetti can recommend that the red card be rescinded. United cannot appeal. As the last defender, Fletcher is without a legal case to have his ban overturned. Where the discussion will really hot up is in the moral realm, where crime meets punishment, and a fine player who has contributed much to a long campaign is excluded from one of the great nights of his life for engaging an opponent with excessive zeal. This, with his team 3-0 up.
To err towards leniency in all such cases would be a charter for violent tacklers and cheats, because it would license players to affect the outcome of semi-finals without fear of punishment. "He's disappointed. He should be disappointed," Ferguson said. "He's one of the most honest players in the game. To miss the final – it's a tragedy."
This morning the phone-ins will hum with the to and fro of condemnation and mercy. While Fletcher mourns, his team-mates march on without him to kill off a curious anomaly. Defending the European title has become one of sport's Homeric quests. No club has retained the grandest prize in club football since Milan in 1989-90. Why? Because it is an infernally hard competition to win once, never mind two years running: a feat that went out of fashion with the Year Zero advent of the quasi-continental league Manchester United are finally learning to dominate.
Real Madrid in the 1950s, Benfica and Internazionale a decade later, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Milan from 1971 to 1990: defending champions were hardly a novelty before group stages and extreme wealth at the elite end rendered it unimaginable that a Forest will ever claim the prize again, even with the new Brian Clough in charge.
Before this game all the anxiety had emanated from the north. Sir Alex Ferguson offered a rare opening to his few remaining detractors by conceding that 10 Premier League titles should have translated into greater influence in Europe. "My biggest regret is that we haven't won it [the European Cup] more times," he said. "We have a terrific history but it is not the same as Milan, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Ajax. We have regrets about that."
This is a surprisingly self-lacerating critique. Clubs tended to be prolific back in the days when the Cup was a straight knock-out contest played by men who were not wealthier than many South American republics. Twice in nine years (1999 and 2008) seems an eminently respectable return on United's domestic superiority, given that Barcelona, Inter and Juventus have won it only twice in their history.
Ferguson's masterstroke was to play Ronaldo in the centre in attack in front of a strong midfield that not only won the territorial struggle in the centre but got forward to pose much the greater threat up front. United's bench bristled with Ryan Giggs, Dimitar Berbatov, Paul Scholes and Carlos Tevez and Ferguson was able to withdraw Rooney to protect him from suspension in Rome. Then the United contingent sang "Fergie, Fergie, give us a wave," and, unusually, the great dictator obliged with a gesture Rafael Benítez might have interpreted as "game over".
No European final can proceed, seemingly, without a player paying the heavy price of banishment for an offence committed in the preceding rounds, and so now Fletcher takes the role assigned to Roy Keane and Paul Scholes in 1999. It is a gruesome punishment, however much it conforms to the letter of the law.
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