It was a night when the good, bad and downright ugly sides of Manchester United were witnessed.

On the one hand, the manner in which they came from 3-1 behind late on against CSKA Moscow to secure their progress into the Champions League knockout rounds and keep their long unbeaten home record in this competition intact was classic United.

Sir Alex Ferguson suggested as much. “If you want excitement, come to Old Trafford,” he said. “It’s one of the great pleasures of being manager of this football club when you get finishes like that tonight.”

When the dust has settled on an enthralling encounter, though, Ferguson will not dwell on his team’s admirable refusal to accept what others might have deemed a lost cause, but rather the defensive failings that handed CSKA three goals and the alarming lack of cutting edge that ensured United, not for the first time, were left to do it the hard way.

In the end, it took the invention of Wayne Rooney — who else? — to spare United’s blushes, extend their unbeaten run at home in Europe to 23 matches, and vindicate Ferguson’s decision to include the England forward among his substitutes only 36 hours after his wife, Coleen, had given birth to their first child.

Rooney did not score, but his presence alone for the final 32 minutes terrified CSKA, as Leonid Slutski, the Russian club’s coach, conceded. Igor Akinfeev was outstanding in the CSKA goal, but such was the pressure that his team found themselves under in the final ten minutes that even he could not keep United at bay.

Rampaging everywhere, Rooney was twice denied by brilliant saves and Federico Macheda saw a header bounce back off a post before Paul Scholes began the fightback in the 84th minute when he rose unmarked to head home Gary Neville’s cross.

At that point, few would have bet against United claiming an equaliser and it duly arrived in the second minute of stoppage time when Antonio Valencia collected Rooney’s pass 25 yards out. His shot was on target but would probably not have troubled Akinfeev had it not taken a wicked deflection off Georgi Schennikov.

It was no less than United deserved but what a mess they nearly made of things. Ferguson, though, could rightly point to Darren Fletcher having claims for a clear-cut penalty turned down when he was clearly tripped by Aleksei Berezutski in the 49th minute.

The referee’s decision was described as “the worst I have seen in my lifetime” by Ferguson, but even accounting for the weakened team he chose to field, his exasperation should have centred principally on his team’s inability to take their chances and the unflattering exposure that, in turn, placed on a creaking defence.

Ferguson has made a big play over the past week about how he would have “absolutely no worries” about starting Jonny Evans and Wes Brown in central defence against Chelsea on Sunday in the event that Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic fail to recover from injuries in time, but on this evidence, the United manager might wish to reassess that statement.

Both were given a torrid time by Tomas Necid and Alan Dzagoev, the lively CSKA Moscow forwards, and Didier Drogba cannot fail to take heart when he watches a video of this game, but, really, United should have been out of sight before the Russians had a chance to make a mockery of the home team’s defence.