And Ferguson likened the 21-year-old England striker to Eric Cantona as he said afterwards: “Having the vision and audacity to do it at that time of the game - one goal up with10 minutes to go – is really great.

“It was a fantastic goal and I remember Eric doing that in the FA Cup against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane (in 1995).

“It was nice to get Wayne scoring, after last week (the 2-1 Barclays Premiership defeat at Arsenal) and the chip really was world class.”

But the Scot was less happy with two decisions which made things hard for his team.

Just 12 minutes into an intriguing contest, Pedro Mendes hooked a Nemanja Vidic header away from danger – after the ball had clearly crossed the line.

If that was not bad enough for the hosts, they also saw a perfectly good Henrik Larsson volley incorrectly ruled out for offside after half-time.

And Ferguson continued on Sky Sports News: “For the first one the linesman was in the right position – but he didn’t see it – it’s incredible. It wasn’t inches over the line – it was a foot over it. It’s amazing.”

As for Larsson’s effort, the Scot explained: “It was onside and it was a fantastic finish.”

He added: “I’m pleased with the performance, we worked hard. There was nothing we could do about their goal – it was reasonably struck but it got a wicked deflection which gave them a lifeline and made it a bit exciting.

“We had a lot more pressure in the second half. We raised the tempo and had more chances – I thought we were in control.”

Ferguson revealed: “I’d made up my mind last week to give Wayne and Cristiano (Ronaldo) a break. Cristiano went on holiday for a week – he played in the World Cup third place play-off on July 8 and has not missed a game all season, so it was a great time to give him a break.”