By: Thamsanqa Dlamini

Manchester United manager David Moyes has praised his team, Wayne Rooney in particular, after their 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in his first UEFA Champions League game at Old Trafford Stadium on Tuesday night.

Rooney showed composure and hunger, netting the brace while Robin Van Persie and Antonia Valencia found the net ensure they bag three points. Simon Rolfes and Omer Toprak found the net for visitors.

Moyes, who labeled Rooney as ‘world class” player, was pleased with the team’s performance. “The performance was really good tonight and the result was great,” Moyes told Sky Sports. “I think recently we’ve not scored as many goals as we would have liked but we’ve got four tonight and maybe could have scored a couple more. The players showed their experience out there. After Leverkusen got back at 1-1, we had to make sure that we went again and won the game.”

Manchester United players celebrate Rooney’s goal against Bayer Leverkusen in a Champions League clash on Tuesday night. Picture by Skysports.com

The former Everton manager said that any team that wants to win the Champions League needs to have several world-class players and Rooney falls into that category. “I think you can see from the way he was moving that he’s in a good place at the moment and any forward who’s scoring goals feels good about himself.”

Red Devils dominated the first quarter on both attempts at goal and ball possession. Leverkusen kept on wasting chances as they failed to capitalize on their set pieces. The margin would have been more emphatic, if United utilized the scoring opportunities they created.

Rooney’s brace has put him on 200 goals he scored for the club. He joined Sir Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and Jack Rowley as the only players to score 200 goals for the club.

“Wayne played really well tonight. We want him to keep that scoring record up. I think everything he did was worthy of two goals, and maybe more. His performance tonight was excellent,” Moyes was quoted as saying from Sky Sports.