United take five to restore old order

When Maccabi Haifa, 11-1 outsiders in a two-horse race, took the lead early on at Old Trafford last night, the programme article listing Manchester United's 10 biggest European victories looked presumptuous in the extreme. But by the end of a lively evening there might even have been a new entry to it, further talk of a crumbling empire had been postponed and United's Champions' League campaign was up and running after a stumbling start. There was even a first goal for Diego Forlan at the 27th attempt.

Remarkably, the victory did not take Sir Alex Ferguson's side to the top of Group F, a position held by Olympiakos after their stunning 6-2 demolition of Bayer Leverkusen, whom United visit next Tuesday. So the section has been opened up wider than expected.

After two successive 1-0 defeats in the Premiership, Ferguson was pleased to see some renewed attacking flair, which became more pronounced as the night wore on against an admittedly poor visiting defence. He was less happy to see his own back line opened up in a manner which suggested that Laurent Blanc is not yet much more comfortable alongside Rio Ferdinand than he was with last season's various partners.

With great respect to Maccabi ­ greater than Sir Alex had granted the Israeli champions in twice confusing them with their fiercest rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv ­ it was the best possible fixture with which to begin his club's 14th season in the European Cup and eighth in the Champions' League. There had been enough wake-up calls for United already this season without anyone needing to set the alarm, but, astonishingly, the bells were ringing again within six minutes of the start.

The Israelis refused, as their manager had promised, to be either intimidated or overawed, and scored in their first attack when the former Wimbledon man Walid Badir sent the slender little striker Yaniv Katan in between Ferdinand and Mickaël Silvestre to set almost 5,000 visiting supporters dancing in what must have been something close to disbelief.

The delirium did not last longer than two minutes, United responding in the manner desperately needed to prevent confidence eroding any further. Phil Neville, who had an excellent game as Juan Sebastian Veron's partner in the centre of midfield, advanced down the right and crossed perfectly for Ryan Giggs to glance a header across the goalkeeper Dudu Awat and just inside the far post. It was their first goal in three games and offered belief that more would follow, even if real fluency was still missing.

Awat thwarted Ruud van Nistelrooy twice in quick succession, but in the 34th minute United regained possession in a dangerous position, Veron found Van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's clever run took him between the covering defenders, facilitating a neat finish for the second goal.

Fluency or not, 15 shots and seven corners represented a productive first half for United, and only 22 seconds after the resumption they scored again. Ferguson was still walking along the side of the pitch as David Beckham sped down the opposite flank and crossed. Although the ball ran behind the oncoming strikers, Veron was well placed to strike it strongly past Awat for his first goal of the season. Another nine minutes and Van Nistelrooy took Veron's chip on his chest for the fourth goal.

Victory effectively assured, the next task was to get Forlan on the pitch and off the mark, the Uruguayan almost scoring with his first touch at a corner. Suddenly, the whole place had relaxed and football did not look such a difficult game.

United even took the opportunity to give their new Spanish goalkeeper Ricardo his senior debut. He had less reason to remember it with pleasure than Forlan or the teenager Danny Pugh, who replaced Van Nistelrooy. In the 85th minute, Ricardo seemed to have blocked a shot by Rafi Cohen, only to see the ball squirm over the line. There was still time for Forlan's great moment, a penalty converted ­ and rapturously cheered ­ after Beckham had been tripped.

Manchester United (4-4-2): Barthez (Ricardo, 67); O'Shea, Ferdinand, Blanc, Silvestre; Beckham, Veron, P Neville, Giggs (Forlan, 55); Van Nistelrooy (Pugh, 75), Solskjaer. Substitutes not used: G Neville, May, Chadwick, Stewart.

Maccabi Haifa (4-5-1): Awat; Harazi (Cohen, 73) , Benado, Ejiofor, Keise; Rosso, Almoshnino (Zano, 55), Badir, Pralija, Zandberg (Israilevich, 64); Katan. Substitutes not used: Al Madon (gk), Levy, Gabarin, Nagar.

Referee: P Allaerts (Belgium).