SOCCER / FC Porto 2 Manchester United 1: Manchester United must hope that Old Trafford is still capable of afflicting their Portuguese opponents with stage-fright.
Alex Ferguson's team will not believe they suffered irreparable damage last night but, after another flawed performance incorporating a late red card for Roy Keane, it will need an exhilarating display in the return leg if their hopes of reclaiming the European Cup are not to be extinguished.
Certainly Porto are a far more accomplished side than that which lost 4-0 at Old Trafford in the quarter-finals of this competition seven years ago. With talented attackers such as Benni McCarthy and Carlos Alberto, they are also equipped to cancel out Quinton Fortune's away goal when the two sides renew acquaintances in 12 days' time.
Keane will be sorely missed, having been sent off for a stamp on the Porto goalkeeper Vitor Baia, whose histrionics may have influenced the referee Herbert Fandel. More than anything, however, United desperately need to tighten up in defence.
Ferguson, that fierce protector of his own, may have refused to castigate his defenders in public, but the United manager had become so alarmed by the frequency with which they had been leaking goals that John O'Shea, one of the players implicated in Keane's recent criticisms, was demoted to the list of substitutes.
Gary Neville moved alongside Wes Brown as a makeshift central defensive partnership and neither will be happy with their positional play for the first goal.
Yet, as gambles go, it might have been a greater risk to rely on O'Shea in his present state of mind. Porto's reputation as one of the Continent's most accomplished attacking sides is not exaggerated and this was a night when Ferguson's team could not afford the sort of mistakes that have persistently undermined their Premiership ambitions.
An opening period of near-unremitting home pressure might well have been anticipated but Ferguson has some intrepid travellers at his disposal and they began with more panache than even their most optimistic follower could have dared imagine.
If there is one criticism, it is that they should have been more ruthless once Quinton Fortune had put them ahead. Had Ruud van Nistelrooy not misjudged Fortune's cross a couple of minutes later, squandering the sort of chance he can usually be relied upon to score blindfolded, it is doubtful whether Porto would have been able to summon up the inner strength to make the return leg at Old Trafford anything other than a formality.
Instead, Van Nistelrooy's wastefulness precipitated a prolonged spell of attacking from the home side that eventually saw them draw level when McCarthy peeled away from Neville and Brown to meet Dmitri Alenitchev's cross with a clinical right-foot volley.
Ferguson is entitled to blame his players for allowing the South African international too much space but the manager will have been equally perturbed at half-time that his side had not been more creative as an attacking force.
Seldom in that period did Louis Saha, making his European debut, show the clever link-up play with Van Nistelrooy that has been evident throughout his early weeks at Old Trafford. Moreover, Paul Scholes looked uncomfortable on the right flank, having been taken out of central midfield to become the seventh player this season to fill the void left by David Beckham.
Even United's goal owed something to the generosity of the German referee Herbert Fandel, who had given Ryan Giggs the benefit of the doubt when he went down under Jorge Costa's challenge.
Giggs touched the free-kick to Paul Scholes, whose shot came back off Vitor Baia and Fortune arrived just in front of Van Nistelrooy to score with an assured finish.
United have now scored in 35 of their last 38 Champions League ties. But McCarthy's equaliser was the first goal conceded by Ferguson's team in Europe for almost seven hours.
Without Rio Ferdinand and Mikael Silvestre there is an obvious vulnerability. Phil Neville, deputising at right-back, should be intensely relieved, for example, that Carlos Alberto, the 19-year-old Brazilian striker, did not make more of a reckless back-pass towards the end of the first half, Tim Howard coming smartly off his goal-line to spare his colleague any prolonged embarrassment.
But United's defenders again went awol as Nuno Valente crossed for McCarthy and the striker scored with a towering header. Added to Keane's late moment of madness, it could ultimately be decisive.
FC PORTO: Vitor Baia, Paulo Ferreira, Jorge Costa, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente, Pedro Mendes, Maniche, Deco, Alenitchev (Jankauskas 63), Carlos Alberto (Ricardo Fernandes 75), McCarthy (Bruno Moraes 83). Subs Not Used: Nuno, Pedro Emanuel, Ricardo Costa, Bosingwa. Goals: McCarthy 29, 78.
MANCHESTER UTD: Howard, Phil Neville (O'Shea 70), Gary Neville, Brown, Fortune, Keane, Butt, Scholes, Saha (Ronaldo 76), Giggs, van Nistelrooy. Subs Not Used: Carroll, Bellion, Kleberson, Djemba-Djemba, Forlan. Sent Off: Keane (87). Booked: Fortune, Butt. Goal: Fortune 14.
Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany).
