The lights were still burning bright inside the Volkswagen offices surrounding Wolfsburg's home as kick-off approached last night. In this so called "City of the Car" small armies toil long into the evening to devise bold new protoypes so it seemed somehow appropriate that Manchester United arrived configured along brave new defensive lines.
Sir Alex Ferguson had said that the injury crisis which has shorn him of 13 senior professionals and left Patrice Evra as his sole recognised defensive specialist inside the Volkswagen Arena would force him into some "serious thinking". The outcome was as refreshingly inspired as anything a TV chef handed a casserole dish of unpromising leftovers and briefed to come up with a fortifying concoction could have hoped to muster.
United's manager whipped up a back three comprising two midfielders but given a spicy twist in that Park Ji-Sung delighted in confusing Wolfsburg by dropping from right wing-back to conventional full-back whenever the penalty area pressure intensified.
Naturally the defence rode their luck at times but they also proved that finely tuned football brains can compensate for more orthodox defensive attributes as the German champions found themselves outwitted if not outmuscled as Michael Owen scored a hat-trick.
Manchester United's injury-induced inexperience was evident even before the first whistle had blown. Evra may have been the old hand in Ferguson's defence but the Frenchman is unused to captaincy and was politely reprimanded by the referee for attempting to initiate the traditional pre-kick handshaking between both teams before the Champions League anthem had concluded.
How the Wolfsburg players giggled at that minor breach of protocol but such mirth soon subsided slightly once Edin Dzeko and his strike partner Grafite began to realise that United's supposedly ersatz central defensive trinity were actually irritatingly elegant in possession.
On the eve of the game Bryan Robson had claimed that Darren Fletcher could play centre-half alongside Carrick with ease. The former United and England captain cited the two midfielders' superior distributive ability and, early on, Fletcher was seen confounding Dzeko by passing short out of defence to Paul Scholes.
Ferguson has never been a 3-5-2 man but then he has never faced an injury crisis of such magnitude. Not that there is anything remotely "Desperate Dan" about Carrick's football.
The central, essentially sweeping role, in that defensive trio seemed destined for the sometime England midfielder. Who knows, if back threes return to fashion Carrick may yet end up as a libero. If so he will surely hope to be supported by a right wing-back as industrious as Park Ji-sung but pray his left wing-back is more assiduous at tracking back than Nani. At least here he could rely on help from Evra, United's left-side centre-back.
Even so the defence did not look entirely comfortable at set pieces and Andrea Barzagli covered his face with his hands after heading over when unmarked.
Carrick – who was lucky not to concede a penalty when he halted Makoto Hasebe's sashay – and his colleagues relied on retaining possession. While Scholes excelled in helping achieve this aim, United wobbled once Wolfsburg advanced.
But home woes intensified when Nani crossed for Michael Owen to propel Ferguson's side into an unlikely lead.
But it was no surprise that early in the second period Marcel Schafer got in front of Park and whipped in a cross which Dzeko – a striker very much on United's radar – gleefully headed home. The Bosnian has undone many stellar defenders but Ferguson will have winced at the ease with which he found space to finish.
There were a few more scares but then Owen struck twice more and, incredibly, Ferguson had got it right again.
The only shame was that there was no cameo from Oliver Gill, a substitute and the son of United's chief executive.
