Man Utd roar back to reach last 16

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MANCHESTER, England -- Manchester United stormed back from a goal down to book a place in the Champions League knockout phase with a 3-1 win over Benfica on Wednesday.

United, who were knocked out at this stage of last season's competition by the Portuguese side, trailed to a superb 27th minute strike by Nelson.

Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic headed United's equaliser in first-half stoppage time.

United came out fighting after the break and capitalised on some poor defending as Ryan Giggs headed them in front in the 61st minute.

French striker Louis Saha sealed the victory with their third goal in the 75th minute.

"I think we can thank Mr. Nelson for the goal," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "It woke everyone up -- our supporters, our players -- and we saw the real Manchester United.

"We played with speed, tenacity, determination and turned the game round. In the second half we controlled the game and it was a very good performance from us bearing in mind we have gone a goal down."

Defeat for Benfica dumped a stylish team out of the competition and into the UEFA Cup, with United finishing top of Group F and joined in the next round by Celtic.

"I think we controlled the game until the last four or five minutes of the first half," Benfica coach Fernando Santos said.

"After we scored our goal we should have passed the ball better. But after that we gave the ball away and lost a lot of possession and Manchester United got their first goal and then got on top of us.

"We had opportunities but, overall, Manchester United dominated the game."

FC Copenhagen beat already-qualified Celtic 3-1 in their Group F match thanks to two early goals at Parken stadium.

Atiba Hutchinson opened the scoring for FC Copenhagen, who had already been eliminated, in the second minute after collecting the ball from a throw-in, rounding a defender and powering home a shot past Celtic keeper Artur Boruc.

Winger Jesper Gronkjaer scored Copenhagen's second goal after 27 minutes with a close-range shot as they dominated the first half before Celtic looked more hungry in the second.

Swedish international Marcus Allback put the result beyond doubt with Copenhagen's third in the 57th minute before Celtic's Jiri Jarosik scored a consolation goal 15 minutes from time.

Disappointed Celtic manager Gordon Strachan said his midfield had struggled in the first half with Copenhagen were strong on set pieces and having played with high intensity.

"Both sides had a lot of chances, the biggest difference was that they were more clinical than us," he said.

Strachan added that it made no difference to finish second, promising to sort out the problems for the knockout stage.

"We wanted to perform but didn't do that," he said, adding that Celtic did manage to produce plenty of chances.

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