David Beckham had been expected to start the game, which marked his club return to Old Trafford following a move to Real Madrid 7 years ago, but was left on the bench for the crucial fixture.

England star Wayne Rooney scored in the first minutes of each half to put the game beyond AC Milan, before Park added a third goal mid-way through the second half.

It was at this stage when David Beckham finally made an appearance on the Old Trafford turf, much to the delight of the 75,000 United fans. His impact was instant, forcing a reaction save from Edwin Van Der Sar.

Manchester United could now face Chelsea or Arsenal in the Quarter-Final of the competition. The draw will be made on Friday. Following Wednesday nights comfortable victory over the Italians, Manchester United were quickly shortened to 4/1 to lift the Champions League trophy, while Barcelona remained solid favourites – as short as 11/4 with William Hill.

The final of the Champions League will take place 3 weeks prior to the World Cup, at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium.

Opening at at 14-1 with Hills, The Package has since gathered support for the race which takes place during next week’s Cheltenham Festival.

“If The Package lands the ante-post gamble, it will be a six-figure loser for us and we only expect it to get worse on the day.

“With him being a novice and fitting in with a lot of recent trends, he ticks a lot of boxes and he will be our worst handicap result of the week if he wins. I can’t see anything else other than him going off favourite.”

The Package is one of 55 horses still in the running following Wednesday’s 6-day-stage.

The former United star, who left the club 7 years ago to join Real Madrid, had hoped to start the game which marked his first return to Old Trafford as a player. Manchester United go into the game 3-2 up on aggregate with Milan needing to score at least 2 goals in order to progress.

Manchester United are odds on favourite to progress.

The Cheltenham Festival, which will see Kauto Star clash with Denman in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, is set to be one of the UK’s biggest online betting events ever. Sites such as Betfair are gearing up for what they predict will be one of their busiest times.

A member of the Betfair team said:

“We’re expecting it to be big, probably our biggest event yet. We have been running some really high-profile advertising campaigns and that, coupled with our relationship with Manchester United, should see us double the number of wagers we handled for the last Cheltenham Festival.”

Betfair, which operates differently to other betting sites by allowing punters to trade direct with each other, has grown significantly during the last 12 months as betting punters look for better odds.

Last year over £300 million were struck in bets, with this years total set to soar even higher with the increased interest on races such as the Gold Cup thanks to the Kauto Star/Denman match-up.

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To win the jackpot, you simply need to correctly predict the winners of the World Cup and the top goalscorer. You must place a bet of €4.50 (or the GBP equivalent) on the outright market along with any size of bet on the top scorer market. To sign up to bwin and place bets on the World Cup markets click here.

Spain are currently the 17/4 favourites with bwin to be crowned World champions, while David Villa heads the market in the Top Goalscorers betting at 9/1.