Scholes eclipses young stars

(CNN) -- In a match billed as a showdown between football's brightest two young stars, it was a player with more than a decade's experience on either who stole the show.

He may never have packed the sort of explosive tricks that are the trademark of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, yet Paul Scholes proved on Tuesday that even at 33 he remains one of Europe's most effective and influential midfielders, scoring the only goal of the game as Manchester United edged a 1-0 aggregate win over Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals.

Picking up a loose ball 30 meters from goal midway through the first half, Scholes unleashed a stunning strike into the top corner past the flailing Barcelona keeper, Victor Valdes.

It was the sort of goal that has become Scholes' signature during an almost 14-year first-team career at Old Trafford, yet this one topped all of them.

Along with Ryan Giggs -- another one-club man -- the red-headed Englishman has been a key presence in the United midfield since his early 20s, initially as a creative spark to complement Roy Keane's energy and aggression and, more recently, as a deep-lying foil for the likes of Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

This season Scholes has played his way back into the United side after sitting out much of the campaign with knee ligament damage -- despite the pressing claims of younger players such as the bustling Brazilian Anderson -- to help the club towards what will likely be the eighth English Premier League title of his career.

And while United coach Alex Ferguson Ferguson nowadays chooses to use him more sparingly, Scholes' selection for both legs of the semifinal against Barcelona suggests he is still first choice for the games that matter.

"He is one of the great players, he came through the ranks at the club and I am so pleased for him," said Ferguson.

"It was a fantastic goal. You can't expect him to score 15 or 20 goals a season for you now like he did when was younger. But when he gets one like that it makes up for the ones he can't score because of his age. It was a marvellous moment for him."

As one of the Champions League's outstanding performers of the past 10 years, it would be fitting as well if Scholes finally gets to play in the final of a competition in which he has unfinished business.

A key player in United's run to the final in 1999, Scholes was forced to sit out United's dramatic victory over Bayern Munich after picking up a suspension during the semifinal against Juventus.

Aged 24 at the time and part of a United team that had just won a treble of European and English league and cup titles, Scholes perhaps would not have imagined then that he would be forced to wait nine years for another chance.

Now, belatedly, he looks set to achieve that particular career milestone. Asked straight after Tuesday's match whether Scholes would be in the team for next month's final in Moscow, Ferguson simply grinned: "Absolutely." E-mail to a friend