Opting to make eight changes from the side that defeated Everton on Saturday, Ferguson trusted in the vigour of Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck to deliver the goals that would seal United’s group win. It didn’t happen, as the 17-year-old Italian and his reserve team partner-in-crime drew a frustrating blank.

Defeat was United’s first in 23 home Champions League matches.

The home side started the match brightly with Irishman Darron Gibson a stand-out figure in central midfield for the opening quarter. But United’s inexperienced selection paid the price for not taking an early advantage as the away side took the lead on 20 minutes. Rodrigo Tello’s speculative 25-yard shot beat Ben Foster, recalled in the United goal, at the far post. 

The oft-criticised ‘keeper should have done more to keep out the effort, despite a heavy deflection off Rafael da Silva wrong-footed the England international.

Gabriel Obertan, by far United’s best player on the night, then broke free only for veteran ‘keeper Rustu Receber to stop the Frenchman’s effort at the near post. It would have been some full-debut at Old Trafford.

It could have been worse for United’s kids though as Beşiktaş’ Michael Fink almost doubled the visitor’s advantage before the interval with a shot that hit the outside of Foster’s post.

But the youngsters continued to monopolise possession after the break without overly extending Rustu until the closing moments. With Anderson lying deep and Gibson increasingly delivering obvious balls towards the forwards, it was left to Obertan to offer United’s cutting edge on the right-wing. Ferguson’s summer acquisition from Bordeaux has shown more in a handful of outings than Nani – omitted once again – has in two years at Old Trafford. Adeus, Luís Carlos.

An increasingly desperate United threw players forward, including substitute Michael Owen who made little impression on the match. Another from the bench, Patrice Evra, was then felled in the box as a Turkish defender cut across the Frenchman. Evra and Ferguson stood in disbelief as referee Lannoy waved away the protests. After Darren Fletcher’s erroneous booking for diving in United’s last Champions League match, Ferguson was rightly annoyed.

“I was right to be agitated, ” Ferguson said afterwards.

“If you can’t give one like this and the one against CSKA Moscow then you are in trouble.

“It’s a penalty kick – that’s two games in a row they have denied us stonewall penalties but what can you do about it?”

It nearly mattered little as Rustu saved magnificently first from Macheda, after neat work by Owen and Evra, and then from Wes Brown who brought the best out of the former-Barcelona stopper with a powerful header.

But for all United’s possession, Ferguson’s youthful side missed a creative heart in Wayne Rooney’s absence. How the Scot could have done with the former-Evertonian’s ability to fashion a chance out of nothing, or – perhaps more tellingly – Paul Scholes of a decade ago.

Talented as many of Ferguson’s protégés are, the United side badly missed a ‘number 10′ pulling the strings as the youngsters froze in the face of defeat. It’s a fault that Ferguson recognised.

“I thought we needed a bit of composure. The young players were a bit anxious and that is understandable in a way,” Ferguson said.

“It was an experimental line-up in a way. We have to be fair in the way we assess the players in these games.

“The value is the trust we have got in playing these young players. They are potentially top players.

“We know about Macheda and Welbeck while Obertan has only arrived at the club after having a long spell out through injury.

“The important thing is, though, they showed a good level. In the first half we had good opportunities but got caught on the counter-attack, which can happen of course.”

While defeat is a lesson learned, the consequences could be far more serious. United will now travel to Wolfsburg in December for matchday six needing a result to top the group and ensure a – potentially – easier draw in the knockout stages. The Scot’s yougsters, likely to feature again in Germany, will need to perform better if the side is to avoid a group winner in the next round.

The United manager will start attacking youngsters Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda against the Turkish outfit, with doubts surrounding Dimitar Berbatov’s fitness and Wayne Rooney rested.

“I will be making changes (against Besiktas). Not a lot, but enough just to freshen it up,” Ferguson said.

“It’s a problem keeping players happy, but everyone has that when you have a squad of players. We use the League Cup for that and, if we can qualify early enough in the (Champions League) group, we can then use the likes of Welbeck.

“He will definitely play (against Besiktas) and Macheda too probably. They are the ones that need to be challenged. They’ve reached a point, and it happens in football, when a footballer has the ability to be a top player and you recognise that.”

“You have to give them the challenge. If you don’t, they lose the scent. But this club has been good at recognising that over the years.

“That’s the nature of football. A young player turns the corner and takes someone’s job.”

United’s place in the knockout stages of the competition is assured, although the prize for topping the group is a potentially easier tie in the next phase. Despite this, Ferguson intends to use Darron Gibson in the centre of midfield and Gabriel Obertan on the left-wing as the Scot aims to cope with the loss of so many injured players.

Obertan, who has impressed supporters with his pace and trickery since a £3 million move from Bordeaux in the summer, has another opportunity to displace the consistently disappointing Nani in United’s attacking quartet.

In addition, Rafael Da Silva will feature at right-back, while Ji-Sung Park will play some part in the match after recovering from an injury that has kept the South Korean out for several weeks.

Ferguson though still expects United to win the match and top group B, with a fixture against a group runner-up in round two the reward for victory on Wednesday night.

“We want to win the group,” added Ferguson.

“Their (Besiktas) form has been transformed in the last six matches. They have won them all and they are in very good form.

“It’s a good fixture in that we are already through. It means I can try one or two things. We could easily have an absolute non-event game, but we will try and challenge the younger players at the back.”

Ferguson is as hungry as ever to win the Champions League – which would take a third final in-a-row – with the pain of last season’s final defeat to Barcelona vivid in the memory. It’s an achievement that the Scot feels was overlooked in the aftermath of the comprehensive loss to Los Cules .Indeed, last season’s opponents face an uphill task to qualify for the knockout stages after losing to Rubin Kazan in matchday four.

“Barcelona could be out tonight and that shows how tough it is to retain the European Cup, as we nearly did last season,” said Ferguson.

“Maybe our achievement has been underestimated because you see how difficult Barcelona are finding it. But if Rubin Kazan with the game, you would not be happy facing Barcelona or Inter in second place.

“But Barcelona are such a good team. They were my favourites to win it at the start of the competition.

“I think there are one or two more difficult groups than we anticipated. The one with Rubin Kazan, Barca, Dynamo Kiev, Barcelona and Inter Milan is a real group of death.

“If Rubin Kazan win against Kiev and Inter and Barca draw, they could both be under the cosh.

“Real Madrid and AC Milan in the same group is difficult, Bayern Munich are struggling, and if Fiorentina beat Lyon, then that’s another big team out in Liverpool.”

With Liverpool’s form as it is, that’s unfair on Debrecen!

“I don’t think it was our best game, but a win’s a win,” man-of-the match Scholes told Sky Sports following the match.

“Turkey’s a difficult place to come and Beşiktaş were a decent team with a good crowd behind them.

“It’s always nice to score goals. I think it was the first time I’d got up the pitch. I didn’t have much chance to get up there. It was an important time to score a goal. It was a disappointment last year — we still did well to get to the final, but we want to go one better this year.”

While Scholes’ goal was ultimately pivotal to United’s win last night, it was the ginger midfielder’s metronomic passing that enabled his side to control the tempo of the game. Much as was the case for an hour against Spurs on Saturday. That the team travelled away from home and retained 60% of the ball in the first half is evidence of United’s tactical approach – keep it tight for an hour and then go for the win.

Indeed, Ferguson must have felt he’d broken the back of Beşiktaş by the time he removed Wayne Rooney on the hour, bringing on both Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov. The change gave United greater impetus, with wingers Nani and Antonio Valencia becoming increasingly penetrative on the touchlines.

“Being the first game you always want to win that but I was quite comfortable with the performance,” manager Sir Alex Ferguson said after the match.

“I thought they did quite well most of the time, kept good possession. We were the better team, the concentration had to be good because it was a fantastic atmosphere and a test of the concentration and a test of the nerves.”

However, many fans were disappointed with the tactics that attempted to nullify the opposition – and their incredible fans – rather than create chances. This is a common pattern in Europe and it has been a number of seasons since Ferguson regularly deployed two strikers away from home in the Champions League.

Once again Rooney was left isolated and largely frustrated by a system that was hard to break down but created only a smattering of opportunities in the first hour. But fans should get used to it – this will be the pattern of United’s play for the remainder of the competition and United’s principal strength is in defence.

The Beşiktaş fans were a sight to behold, with the ground bouncing, clapping, chanting and singing for the full 90 minutes. Recent tests have apparently shown that fans at BJK İnönü Stadium are the world’s noisiest, being recorded at more than 130 Db. That’s louder that a jumbo so the experts would have us believe. Something the Stretford End might want to think about come the weekend’s match against City.

“They create an atmosphere over here like no other country in Europe,” captain Gary Neville said.

“I think if Beşiktaş had got a goal it would have been a really hard night for us. So to keep a clean sheet was important – once we get in front we aim to make it very difficult for other sides.

“European football’s always really hard so we’re really happy with the win. It puts us in a good position.”

Bring on City.

“Someone mentioned it to me, but I never saw anything,” Ferguson told Sky Sports after the match.

“I do know the fans made the loudest noise I have ever heard. They never stopped the whole night.”

“It was always part of our thoughts to bring Wayne off. He had been playing as the lone striker for an hour, which is why he was always going to come off. He is never pleased to come off. He has so much energy he wants to play all the time.”

While dismissing the media-driven concern over Rooney, Ferguson was concerned about the ‘laser’ being targeted by fans at his players. The red dot appeared on several players during the match, especially the Northern Irish defender Johnny Evans.

“It was in the first-half, although thankfully the police did something about it,” said Ferguson.

“They managed to get the culprit, which is good because I noticed it particularly on Jonny Evans. It seemed to be on him all the time.”

Tonight sees United take on Beşiktaş at the picturesque BJK İnönü Stadium in Istanbul, in what could amount to a 13 match European season. There follows tough looking group games against VfL Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow, alongside the Turkish champions. But if getting out of a tough looking group B will be hard enough then redemption in the form of a Champions League win in Madrid, 22 May 2010 looks a world away. Naturally that is not an assessment that many United players agree with.

“The Champions League is the stuff of dreams and, as a kid growing up, you sit there thinking if you will ever be good enough to win it,” defender Rio Ferdinand told The Guardian.

“To be able to get there and win it was ridiculous for me, especially the way we did it on penalties against Chelsea. But having also lost a Champions League final, I know what that feels like too and it’s not an easy thing for me to talk about. It was sickening because it was our chance to win the trophy for a second successive year.

“We felt that we were on the cusp of greatness and the worst thing about it was that we didn’t even put up a fight really. To lose the way we did was really difficult. We just never got going. If we had scored in the first 10 minutes, I think we’d have gone on to win the game, but they got the first goal and it stunned us. We never recovered after that and that’s what is so disappointing.”

The pain of Rome’s final clearly resonates as deeply with Ferdinand as it does with most fans. Fourteen weeks on from the 2-0 defeat to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team and the search for answers still continues. Indeed, it was not the defeat itself but the manner in the context of last season that caused so much consternation. While United did not play the best football of any team in last season’s Champions League – that honour belongs to the eventual winners – the team did play some of the most effective.

Tonight marks an opportunity to put the past to bed and leave the regrets of Rome behind. Yet Beşiktaş represents no walkover and not solely for their vociferous support – the standard of Turkish football has improved markedly over the past decade. The Beşiktaş side contains not only former Barcelona goalkeeper Rüştü Reçber, but the Brazilian Bobô and former Inter and Everton defender Matteo Ferrari. The cosmopolitan nature of the squad reflecting the improved financial power of the Turkcell Süper Lig.

Despite the improved strength of Turkish football, Beşiktaş is seen as an opportunity for manager Sir Alex Ferguson to rotate the squad, with the weekend’s local derby front of mind. Don’t be surprised to see Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Ryan Giggs on the bench for tonight’s match. None will want to be in a similar position in Madrid, eight months from now.

United’s magnificent performance saw Spurs’ bubble burst and the home side’s long-suffering fans silenced . White Hart Lane’s faithful thought Harry Redknapp could bring them Champions League football. Saturday’s match served to highlight the gap that Spurs must bridge.

United, on the other hand, showed precisely what’s required by Spurs to gatecrash the elite of English football. The never-say-die attitude to come from a goal down, the ‘grab-any-opportunity’ mentality to score a goal and even the let-them-think-they-have-a-chance sucker-punch when having a man sent off.

There were some outstanding individual performances on Saturday. Patrice Evra stood out for an excellent man-marking job on the in-form Aaron Lennon. The Frenchman won the battle of the midgets, by showing Lennon onto his left foot, and reducing the Spurs’ winger to launching aimless crosses with his weaker foot.

Ryan Giggs was impeccable and tireless, as was Anderson, whose dynamic play was finally rewarded with a goal. The Brazilian must push on from here and cement a place in the middle of the park alongside Darren Fletcher, who needs to share his vitamin pills with Michael Carrick. The former Spurs man has looked out of sorts so far this season, and on this form he’ll be sitting on the bench more often.

Rio Ferdinand’s return could not have been better-timed with a packed fixture list to come. Led by the England defender, United’s back four dealt well with Spurs’ tactic of launching the ball towards the freak Peter Crouch.

Don’t forget Ben Foster, whose fingertip save from Jermaine Jenas’ shot was the second time in as many matches that the ‘keeper has pulled off a stop Peter Schmeichel would have been proud of.

The pairing of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov caused plenty of problems for the Spurs defence. The Bulgarian dropped deep, which gave him plenty of time and space to dictate play. Ledley “jelly legs” King just couldn’t keep up with Berbatov’s off-the-ball movement. It was another understated display from Berbatov, who does not get the recognition he deserves simply because he is expected to bang in goals for fun.

Best of all, the way Rooney took his goal was pure quality. You can’t teach people to play football like that. Either you’re born with a football brain, or you’re not – like Emile Heskey.

Sir Alex has options in midfield, which not only keeps his opponents guessing but heats up the competition for places. That’s what it takes to get Anderson and Nani performing week in, week out.

If United was good against Tottenham, then a stellar performance is required against Besiktas on Tuesday night. It’s no easy task.

Fans at the BJK İnönü Stadium, which has the most beautiful view of any stadium in the world according to the legend Pelé, make English hooligans look like kindergarten kids. Not that United players should plan any sightseeing, with bottles and stones thrown raining down from the stands. Apparently it’s a customary request for an autograph! United can expect to face a welcome about as warm as Emmanuel Adebayor at an Arsenal supporters’ fan club night.

Despite winning a domestic league and cup double last season, Besiktas has started the season poorly, with only one win in five matches. Galatasaray thumped Mustafa Denizli’s men 3-0  over the weekend. Besiktas will surely be looking to salvage some pride against the Red Devils.

The Black Eagles’ forward line, led by Nihat Kahveci the former Villarreal striker – whose injury proneness rivals Louis Saha – and the Brazilian Bobo has found goals hard to come by so far this season. However, the ridiculously named Bobo has an impressive record since joining the club in 2006, scoring 74 goals in roughly twice as many matches.

On the United side, Antonio Valencia will hope to make his European debut, in what will be a good test of the Ecuadorian’s ability to step up to the next level.

United must seize the impetus with an early goal, which would silence the mad-men in the stands and calm the players’ nerves. The Turks are likely to adopt a counter-attacking 4-5-1 formation, aiming to overload the midfield and play a pressing game. This is where Rooney and Berbatov need to produce that extra bit of magic to find space in the final third.

In a tense affair, United will clip the Black Eagles’ wings by the odd goal or two. Then, it’s time for Sir Alex’s men to focus on bringing Manchester City back down to Earth with the mother of all reality checks!