The locals, it seemed, had expected more from Manchester United. They hoped to see a swashbuckling team full of flair and instead saw Cristiano Ronaldo isolated and Wayne Rooney marginalised in a side that gave away the ball with alarming regularity. As satisfying as the result was, the jeers of the Barcelona faithful were not music to the ears of Sir Alex Ferguson, who thought his team would deliver more as an attacking force.

“I’m a bit disappointed in the transition between defence and attack,” the United manager said. “We’re normally better than that at keeping possession. That is what causes me more concern than any other part of the game. We will analyse why in the next two or three days, but we lacked penetration. We were not quick enough breaking out of central areas and, when you give the ball away at this level, you have to go back and defend.”

United’s lack of fluency could be attributed to the deployment of Rooney on the right-hand side of midfield. The England forward has frequently played in wide positions in Champions League matches, particularly away from home, when Ferguson has reverted to a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 formation, but last night, with Carlos Tévez partnering Ronaldo in attack, he was operating far deeper in support of Owen Hargreaves, the makeshift right back.

“Maybe asking Rooney to play in a different position — and Park Ji Sung in a different position as well — put an onus on us to defend more,” Ferguson said. “In Ronaldo, I thought we had a player who could win the match. He was a constant threat and I thought that, with better support, we could have won.”

Ferguson felt that Paul Scholes, making his 100th Champions League appearance, was one of the few United players who showed an ability to retain possession, but even he could not match the sublime passing and movement of Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Deco, who, along with the bewitching Lionel Messi, produced the type of football that Barcelona, and indeed Arsenal, are renowned for — beautiful one-touch stuff lacking only in a final product.

“I said beforehand that when you look at the players on the Barcelona teamsheet you know you’re going to be in a game,” Ferguson said. “The pleasing thing for me was that they didn’t make any great chances. They began well after the interval, hitting the side-netting through [Samuel] Eto’o, but other than that, I think we have done well in reducing their opportunities.” Much of the credit for that should go to Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown, who resumed their central defensive partnership in the absence of Nemanja Vidic, who was laid low by a stomach infection.

Ferguson admitted that he had been tempted to select Gerard Piqué, the 21-year-old Spanish defender whom he signed from Barcelona’s youth academy, but that it would have been “unfair on the boy to put that responsibility on him”.

That explanation will only fuel the belief that Piqué, unsettled at Old Trafford, is to return to the Nou Camp this summer, with the Catalan club eager to recapture one of the promising youngsters who have been procured by the Barclays Premier League’s elite in recent years.

Ferguson finished with a message for United’s supporters in advance of the second leg at Old Trafford. “The Barcelona fans were happy with the way their team played,” he said. “They did not wave their handkerchiefs. I trust we will have that type of support in our stadium next Tuesday.”