Own goal: Jones directs the ball past De Gea to hand
the Portuguese side an early lead
Red alert: Ferdinand's mistake allowed Aimar to
equalise
Benfica 9
pts
Manchester
United 9
pts
FC
Basel 8pts
Otelul
Galati
0 pts
And so to
Switzerland in December, where Manchester
United have left themselves something still to do. A
draw against Basle will be enough to see Sir Alex Ferguson's side
go through, but almost certainly not as winners of Champions League
Group C.
That honour is set to go to last night's
opponents Benfica, who have already qualified and will be expected
to beat the minnows from Romania, Otelul Galati.
It didn't have to be this way. United were drawn
in arguably the easiest group in this season's competition but
their defensive frailties were exposed again last night, just as
they were by Basle here in their opening home game of the
campaign.
It leaves the English champions at risk of an
early exit from the competition for the first time since 2005, when
defeat at the hands of Benfica proved fatal.
A draw - their third of this uninspiring European
campaign - may not be quite as damaging but United have certainly
made life difficult for themselves, and did so from the moment Phil
Jones put through his own net inside four minutes.
A rare Dimitar Berbatov goal in Europe and Darren
Fletcher's second-half strike put United ahead but they were pegged
back again by Pablo Aimar. Ferguson was defiant
afterwards.
The United manager said: 'The chips are down for
us but I have every confidence in my team. It's a cruel game at
times and it was cruel for us tonight. I have no fault with my
players at all. They deserved better.
'We got off to a bad start, conceding a goal
after four minutes. It does take the wind from your
sails.'
United's cause was not helped by the absence of
captain Nemanja Vidic, serving the second game of his suspension,
and top scorer Wayne Rooney, who failed to recover from the hip
injury he picked up at Swansea on Saturday.
Ashley Young was deployed in a central role
behind Berbatov but they had hardly touched the ball when Benfica
silenced Old Trafford.
Nicolas Gaitan, the man with the £40million
buy-out clause who has been linked with the Barclays Premier League
champions in recent weeks, set up the goal. He received the ball
after running into space wide on the right, and he cut inside
before crossing to the edge of the six-yard box.
Jones's view appeared to be blocked by Rio
Ferdinand as the 19-year-old defender stuck out his left foot and
diverted the ball past a stranded David de Gea. Safe to say his
first goal in senior football will not be a happy
memory.
Berbatov struck on the half-hour mark, although
the Bulgarian appeared to be marginally offside when he met Nani's
cross with a glancing header just inside Artur's left-hand post.
Amazingly it was his first goal in 21 hours and two minutes of
Champions League football since he scored against Celtic at Old
Trafford in October 2008.
Fair play to Berbatov. When the moment came there
was no tearing off his shirt, no kissing the club badge. Just a
wave of the hand, ushering his team-mates back to the centre circle
to get on with the job.
He knew there was work to do and so it proved.
Almost immediately, Artur came out to block when Berbatov sent
Young clean through, and the Benfica keeper made another
instinctive save to deny Fabio da Silva early in the second half
before he was finally beaten again on the hour.
The visitors from Portugal scrambled the ball out
only as far as Patrice Evra, and the French defender's cross back
into the penalty area picked out Darren Fletcher's run perfectly.
The Scot saw his first effort brilliantly kept out by Artur but
seized on the loose ball to score into an empty net. The lead
lasted 80 seconds.
De Gea's distribution was one of the reasons
United chose him as Edwin van der Sar's successor, but even
Ferguson admitted the young Spaniard should have launched a
clearance kick out of play instead of trying to knock it to
Fabio.
Bruno Cesar intercepted his pass and broke into
the box. Ferdinand failed to clear the cross and served up the ball
on a plate to leave Aimar with the simple task of lifting his shot
into the roof of the net from close range.
If Berbatov thought he'd had a long wait, this
was Aimar's first Champions League goal for seven years, and a
priceless one at that.
'It was very disappointing,' said Ferguson.
'There was something a bit freakish about it, to be honest with
you. An own goal and then a bad kick out from David de
Gea.'
Michael Carrick was shown a yellow card that will
rule him out of the final group game in Basle, which would have
been a whole lot more comfortable if Berbatov had not volleyed over
from close range with only Artur to beat 12 minutes from
time.
It was agony for the Bulgarian, and frustrating
for United. It could get worse.
