HOW MANY players can claim to have scored a double in a match against World Club and English Premier League champions Manchester United?

If we're talking about league games last season, that would be a big fat zero.

Only Blackburn's Benni McCarthy and Derby's Giles Barnes, both in Carling Cup encounters, managed this impressive and improbable feat against the Red Devils' watertight defence.

But even these top professionals did not beat two world-class goalkeepers within 90 minutes.

This is why Malaysia's two-goal wonder Mohd Amri Yahyah will have a heck of a football tale to tell his grandchildren one day.

The 28-year-old will no doubt be wearing a Cheshire grin when he recounts how his delightful lob beat the 1.97-metre Edwin van der Sar in front of the 85,000 capacity crowd at the Bukit Jalil Stadium just before half-time.

If you've missed it, you should search the Internet for a replay. It was truly top-drawer, impudent and exquisite, the stuff of fantasies for any striker.

Forget his 2005 Malaysian Premier League, Malaysian FA Cup and Malaysia Cup treble. The day 18 July, 6.15pm, will forever be the most special moment in Amri's football career.

Off the line

The Selangor skipper said of his first goal: 'I noticed that Van der Sar strayed off his line a few times and when the ball came towards me, I chested it down and took one shot when I saw him off the line again.'

He proceeded to top it off by capitalising on a horrific slip by Ben Foster to net an unlikely equaliser minutes into the second half.

'The second was more due to luck when the goalkeeper slipped. And when that happened I went for the ball and managed to push it into goal,' Amri said.

'To beat the Dutch national goalkeeper and future England goalkeeper was indeed very satisfying.'

To any footballer, these are spectacular events fit for a fairytale, and more so for a player who was deemed a has-been and endured exile from the national team for three years until he was drafted back recently.

Amri said: 'This means a lot to me as I had not played for the national team since a 2006 friendly against New Zealand.

'I thought I would never get back in, but this memorable match is more than I could have asked for.'

MALAYSIAN XI 2

(Mohd Amri Yahyah 45, 52)

MAN UNITED 3

(Rooney 8, Nani 27, Owen 85)