John O'Shea gave Manchester United a 1-0 victory over Arsenal on Wednesday in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, but the defending champion missed plenty of chances to win by a bigger margin. The fullback scored in the 18th minute after Arsenal failed to clear a corner. United outplayed Arsenal for long spells and had chances of a far bigger victory, but was foiled by three good first-half saves by Manuel Almunia. The Red Devils now look certain to go to next week's second leg without center back Rio Ferdinand, who has a suspected rib fracture after a late scramble in front of the United goal. “He's gone to hospital and we will wait for the outcome of that,” said United manager Alex Ferguson. “It doesn't look good at the moment.” The two teams meet again at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium next Tuesday. The winner will advance to the May 27 final in Rome to face either Barcelona or Chelsea, who drew 0-0 in Tuesday's first leg in Spain. “We had chances and their goalkeeper made two or three fantastic saves,” Ferguson said. “The more pleasing aspect is that, before the game I said (to the players) ‘Try and win the game without conceding a goal.' We've done that. “Our forward play was very good and that's given us a good chance. But the tie is not over, obviously.” Arsenal was without injured forward Robin van Persie and Russian star Andry Arshavin, who is not eligible to line up for the Gunners in the Champions League having played for Zenit St. Petersburg earlier in this season's competition. The result was that Arsene Wenger's men rarely created chances at Old Trafford but are fortunate they only have to make up a one-goal deficit at home. Wenger believes that his team will play far better in the second leg. United's pressure brought some early chances followed by a goal. Wayne Rooney's looping header in the second minute was finger-tipped away by Almunia, and a well-worked move ended with O'Shea's cross to Carlos Tevez, whose close-range shot was well saved by the Gunners keeper. From the corner, Michael Carrick beat a defender on the left and his cross deflected off Alex Song to the unmarked O'Shea, who drove the ball into the roof of the net. The defending champion maintained the momentum, and the busy Almunia saved a close-range header from Cristiano Ronaldo as well as his follow up shot. Later, he raced off his line to dive at the feet of Tevez as United threatened more goals. Toward the end United manager Alex Ferguson sent on Dimitar Berbatov for the busy Tevez, and Ryan Giggs stretched his record number of appearances for the club to 800 when he came on for Anderson.
