The sending-off of Paul Scholes for handball in the 90th minute resulted in him missing Manchester United's opening game in their defence of the Champions League, a home tie against Villarreal.

Both Konstantin Zyryanov and Aleksandr Anyukov created opportunities on the right wing, only for Pavel Pogrebnyak to miss the target from a promising position on both occasions.

Andrey Arshavin, a target for Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur over the summer, came on as a substitute for Alejandro Domínguez at half-time, but it was Danny who made the breakthrough for the second goal on the hour mark.

A Carlos Tevez effort came close to pulling a goal back for Manchester United, and sparked a period of sustained pressure for the European champions.

John O'Shea, Park Ji-sung and Wayne Rooney all went close as the clock ran down, but it was Danny who went closest to getting another goal for Zenit, shooting over the bar with just Van der Sar to beat after picking up a through ball from Andrey Arshavin.