United stunned,twice over

It appeared to have capped an unlikely comeback after Porto stunned the home fans by taking the lead inside four minutes. United defender Jonny Evans was at fault,sending a poor clearance straight to Cristian Rodriguez,who ghosted around the Ireland international before curling a smart left-foot shot beyond Edwin van der Sar into the bottom corner.

Few realised at the time but it was a sign of things to come with the visitors continuing to dominate a United side looking short of pace and laboured in midfield.

Gift equaliser

Lisandro could have doubled Portos lead but saw his strike saved by Van der Sar before United were gifted an equaliser courtesy of Bruno Alvess woeful back pass. Rooney could hardly believe his luck as he beat Porto goalkeeper Helton with a calm finish after 15 minutes.

Despite their setback Porto continued to threaten through the impressive Hulk and Rodriguez. Van der Sar denied both players with impressive saves while Lisandro saw his deflected shot tipped wide by the Dutchman as the visitors went in search of a deserved second goal.

Hulk was denied a penalty in the 75th when he appeared to be tripped by Tevez before the United substitute converted Rooneys clever pass to hand the home side an undeserved lead.

It lasted just four minutes before Lisandros cross found the unmarked Mariano who beat the onrushing Van der Sar to give Porto a valuable second goal and the upper hand in the tie.

Porto played exactly as I thought they would. The score is about right. They were the better side in the first half but we improved our game in the second half and had a lot of possession, added United manager Alex Ferguson said.

Fatigue,says Ferguson

Giving away that late goal in the game as we did,we should really have been defending that but we didnt. It was a bad goal to lose. Maybe it was a bit of fatigue because its been a hard few days for them.

United may have extended their record unbeaten Champions League run to 22 matches but Fergusons side have been left with a mountain to climb in next weeks return leg.

Its going to be difficult for us now. It will be a difficult game in Porto,that goes without saying, Ferguson told a news conference.

Apparently,we will have to be the first English team to win there,but we are going to have to do it. This club has always set firsts so this is a chance for us to be first again.

Porto coach Jesualdo Ferreira said the draw had put his side in a good position.

The score is a good score,but nothing has been sorted yet. We can at least go back and dispute the result with Manchester United,though, he said.

We deserve this scoreline because we had more chances than them,but we must now convince our players that they can go even further and do better things.

We know how powerful United are,though. They will play a different way against us next week,but my players can go to the next stage.