Besiktas stun complacent United

MANCHESTER UNITED still require a point to finish top of their Champions League qualifying group after Alex Ferguson fielded a Carling Cup side against Besiktas at Old Trafford and was punished with a 1-0 defeat.

A spectacular first-half goal from Rodrigo Tello was enough to earn the Turkish side victory and although United are already through to the knockout stages it is a matter of concern that tactical experiments have seen their home form in Europe dip alarmingly.

Don’t forget United had to come from behind to draw 3-3 with CSKA Moscow in their previous home tie after Ferguson opted to play two wingers with Michael Owen and Federico Macheda up front – and the system back-fired embarrassingly before the home team recovered with a late rally. This time Ferguson’s team selection was even more extreme and it led to their first home defeat in a group stage match since they lost to Deportivo eight years ago.

True, it took two stunning last-minute saves from goalkeeper Rustu Recber to complete the statistic, denying first Macheda and then Wes Brown from close range.

And true, the result is of little relevance given United are already through to the last 16. But there was an element of overconfidence about their approach that doesn’t do them credit.

Ferguson admitted his young players still have a lot to learn. “I think we were a bit anxious but it’s not a bad thing – they’re young and you expect them to make mistakes,’’ he said. “We’ve shown some really good things tonight and that’s encouraging but at the end of the day we just didn’t get the result we needed.”

The home side were missing injured Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans, Owen Hargreaves, John O’Shea and Dimitar Berbatov and yet still rested Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen, Darren Fletcher, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick and Edwin van der Sar.

Still, the performance of Danny Wellbeck in particular hinted at good things to come, especially in the way he linked up with Gabriel Obertan.

Perhaps it would have been different if Obertan had put United ahead within the first 10 minutes. But he slipped just as Park Ji-Sung’s long-range shot was spilled into his path by Rustu.

Certainly, if United thought this was going to be easy, they quickly came to realise that Besiktas are not a team to take lightly. Rafael looked decidedly green at left-back and was nowhere to be seen when Rodrigo Tello collected a crossfield pass, cut inside and curled a deflected left-foot shot beyond Ben Foster’s grasp from 20 yards.

It could have been 2-0 before half-time, too, when Michael Fink’s shot from inside the area clipped the outside of Foster’s left-hand post, so although Obertan also wasted an opportunity at the other end following good work from Wellbeck, there was plenty to dwell on at the break.

After 68 minutes Michael Owen replaced Park to give United an extra attacking edge just when the game was beginning to peter out.

Until then Obertan had looked United’s best hope, having been denied once by Rustu before seeing a twisting header land on the roof of the net, while Darron Gibson had showed promising touches in midfield before giving way to Michael Carrick.

The final minutes at least saw United on the attack, with substitute Patrice Evra claiming a penalty as he was sandwiched by two defenders inside the area, and then Rustu producing his heroics from two last-gasp headers. But in truth it was a lacklustre display which shows United cannot yet make so many sweeping changes and get away with it.

MANCHESTER UNITED: Foster 6; Neville 6, Brown 6, Vidic 6, R Da Silva 5 (Evra 74, 6); Park 6 (Owen 68, 5), Gibson 7 (Carrick 73, 6), Anderson 6, Obertan 8; Wellbeck 8, Macheda 6.

BESIKTAS: Rustu 7; Ferrrari 6, Kas 7, Toramin 6; Uzulmez 6; Koybasi 6, Ernst 7, Fink 8, Ekrem Dag 7, Tello 7 (Inceman 75, 6), Bobo 6 (Karadeniz 84).