Louis van Gaal hails Wayne Rooney's 'beautiful' winner against Swansea

· Wayne Rooney passes Denis Law with 238th goal for Manchester United
· 'It was a great goal and it came at the right moment,' says manager

Posted Sunday, January 03, 2016 by theguardian.com

Wayne Rooney Manchester United's winner against Swansea City.

Louis van Gaal oversaw Manchester United's first win in nine games and then hailed Wayne Rooney's match-winner as a turning point for the season.

The captain's 77th-minute goal against Swansea, his 238th for the club, ensured he reached a United landmark and eased the pressure on the Dutchman. "Passing Denis Law's scoring record is a fantastic achievement," the manager said. "For me it was more important for someone to score today. It was a great goal, though, with his left foot behind his right foot you cannot imagine what a goal that is. And it came at the right moment, I think. I hope it can be a new starting point for us."

Louis van Gaal oversaw Manchester United's first win in nine games and then hailed Wayne Rooney's match-winner as a turning point for the season.

Anthony Martial opened the scoring just after half-time and Gylfi Sigurdsson equalised in the 70th minute, before Rooney settled the game.

Van Gaal said: "Considering the pressure we were under it was amazing that we performed the gameplan like we did, in a risky style against difficult opponents.

"I am very happy that we won the match and happy that we scored two beautiful goals. You cannot win games without scoring goals, but just because we scored twice in the second half does not mean it was better than the first. As a team our performance in the first half was better. We only played with three defenders and we did not give any chances away. We also created more chances in the first half. In the second we created fewer, but we took them. That is important, as we know."

Chris Smalling disagreed with his manager about the first half being best. "We played far better in the second half and scored two very well-worked goals," the defender said. "To see both our strikers on the scoresheet is a very good sign. We have dropped two many points for our liking recently, but at least we have made a good start to the new year."

Alan Curtis, for whom this was a first defeat since taking over as Swansea caretaker, said it was a decent display though not necessarily one deserving of greater reward. "We went for it a little more after going behind, and perhaps we were a little unlucky with chances right at the end," he said. "We are not playing badly, but in our situation it has to be about results and not performances."