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London - Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice on Tuesday to help Manchester United reach the final of the Champions League for a second straight year with a 3-1 win at Arsenal.
Park Ji-sung put the defending champions ahead following a slip by defender Kieran Gibbs before Ronaldo hit a swerving free kick from 35m to make it 2-0 after only 11 minutes.
Ronaldo then rounded off a 61st-minute counterattack that he started in his own half and, although Robin van Persie got a late goal back for Arsenal, United completed a 4-1 aggregate win in the two-legged semifinal.
The comprehensive victory means United could now become the first team since AC Milan in 1989 and 1990 to earn the title of European champion for two straight years, although it will face Chelsea or Barcelona in the May 27 final in Rome.
Chelsea, which lost last year's final on a penalty shootout, hosts the Spanish league leader in the second semifinal on Wednesday. The teams are tied 0-0 from the first leg.
The only bad news for United was that midfielder Darren Fletcher, who was an unused substitute last year, will be suspended for the final after he was sent off for conceding the late penalty that led to Arsenal's only goal.
Fletcher brought down Cesc Fabregas in the area and Robin van Persie converted the resulting kick in the 76th.
Until then, Arsenal had labored without success against a defense that earlier this season went a Premier League-record 14 games without conceding a goal.
Arsenal needed to overturn a 1-0 deficit from last week's first leg at Old Trafford but United's early burst of two goals in three minutes soon left the Gunners needing to score four goals to progress - something it never looked capable of doing.
