At the very end of an evening when it had all too frequently been tempting to dub Antonio Valencia a poor man's Cristiano Ronaldo, the Ecuadorian's adroit winning finish served as a timely rebuke.

Much as they miss Ronaldo, United are coping well enough without him and, courtesy of Valencia's 86th-minute strike, now top Group B boasting a 100% record. With progress to the next phase all but assured, Sir Alex Ferguson is now free to concentrate on Sunday's vital Premier League fixture at Liverpool.

Rather like United as a whole, Valencia improved as the night unravelled and a patient first-half display gave way to a higher-tempo second period. "He's emerging very well," said Ferguson, whose team equalled Ajax's record of 14 straight away games without defeat in Europe. "Valencia's got strength, crossing ability and balance, goal-scoring was his weakness at Wigan but he's now scored a couple in two games. His confidence is growing."

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United, missing the injured Wayne Rooney, were arranged in a mirror image of CSKA's 4-2-3-1 configuration and, like Juande Ramos's side, began slowly, initially struggling to sustain any sort of attacking momentum.

With early scoring chances at a premium, a rare moment of excitement arrived when Nemanja Vidic – fit again and restored to a defence also featuring Fabio da Silva as an overlapping left-back – hesitated momentarily, ceding possession to his fellow Serb, Milos Krasic.

The much coveted forward – AC Milan are especially keen – dodged two markers, before sending a shot whizzing over the bar.

Vidic had been warned that, for players accustomed to operating on grass, the ball's bounce on the Luzhniki's artificial stadium can seem disorientating.

No matter, CSKA were appearing slightly bewildered by United's left-wing combination of Fabio and Nani. So much so that when the excellent Paul Scholes – sitting deep in central midfield alongside John O'Shea – lobbed a diagonal ball in Nani's direction the Portuguese's resultant cross very nearly resulted in the hitherto worryingly isolated Dimitar Berbatov scoring with a close-ranger header.

If Berbatov was seeing far too little of the ball, CSKA fed Krasic at every opportunity. From his nominal right-sided attacking position he drifted all over the place, frequently dribbling considerable distances. While Krasic, who sports almost as much luxuriant blond hair as Robbie Savage, sometimes hogged possession when a simple pass would have served his team better, his raking angled shot that skidded fractionally wide of Edwin van der Sar's far post emphasised that Ferguson's defence were up against a dangerous enemy. "Krasic is very talented," agreed United's manager.

Despite gradually tightening up his marking of the Serb appreciably, Fabio probably did not do quite enough to earn a starting place at Anfield, where Vidic could possibly be in danger of replacement by Jonny Evans – a substitute here – after looking a little rusty at times. And never more so than when permitting Alan Dzagoev to intercept his loose back-pass and leaving Van der Sar to smartly repel the ensuing danger.

As half-time approached United's travelling support found themselves with disappointingly little to cheer about – unless you can't Gary Neville's somewhat startling speculative left-footer from distance which bounced onto the roof of the net.

Instead the moment when Berbatov, having adroitly turned his minder, swung a boot at a Valencia cross but ended up swiping thin air seemed horribly emblematic of United's travails.

Whether from Gorton or Gorky Park, their fans could have been forgiven for spending half-time wishing Ronaldo was still around but Ferguson may have been more concerned by the way his defenders stood off Tomas Necid at the outset of the second period.

Fortunately for Vidic and Rio Ferdinand – later replaced by Wes Brown in a pre-Anfield energy conserving move – Necid failed to strike the ball cleanly, leaving Van der Sar with a simple save but it was a moment to make even Rafael Benítez feel slightly optimistic.

CSKA thought they had taken the lead when the increasingly influential Dzagoev shot into the bottom corner but the dramatic red flares lit by Muscovites were ignited prematurely as that effort was rightly disallowed for a blatant offside.

It served to galvanise United and almost immediately the previously underemployed Igor Akinfeev – a keeper very much on Ferguson's radar and extravagantly praised by the Scot afterwards – saved brilliantly to keep a Nani header out following Neville's cross.

With his side suddenly near omnipotent, Ferguson sent Michael Owen on in Scholes's stead, switching to 4-4-2 in the process and, shortly afterwards, Valencia hit the bar. When Nani whipped in a left-wing cross and Berbatov flicked on, the swivelling Ecuadorian did rather better, squeezing a close-ranged angled strike beyond Akinfeev.

The only cause for Ferguson's mood to darken was the decision by Russian customs officers to incinerate the post-match meal specially sent out from Manchester for the team's flight home, replacing it with Russian speciality cuisine.