NICE ONE CENTURION, NICE ONE

The arrogance of Manchester United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson almost caused one of the most embarrassing defeats of his time at Old Trafford in a match where the three points appeared safe with his side leading 2-0 after 59 minutes.

But Ferguson opened the door for Olympiakos by taking off Ryan Giggs and David Beckham four minutes later.

Perhaps Ferguson just wanted to give the supporters something to watch since up until then this had been a stroll for United, which seemed certain to deliver their 100th win in Europe and continue their 100% record in the competition this season.

As it was, Ferguson ended relieved that his team confirmed their safe passage from the opening group stage for the seventh successive season, knowing that only a freak sequence of results can prevent them finishing as Group F winners, which can be termed a group of death only in the sense that United have squeezed every bit of interesting life out of it.

United rarely engaged second gear, let alone cruising speed, as they took their two-goal lead. Laurent Blanc's first-half header was followed by a second from Juan Sebastian Veron just before the hour, a fine strike following a neat exchange of passes with Giggs.

Ferguson will certainly think seriously of resting some of his best players for another long journey to Cyprus next week to play Maccabi Haifa, having been refused permission to cancel Saturday's match against Aston Villa so that his team could travel directly from here. But after seeing his side fall apart last night, maybe he will have second thoughts.

The Greek fans had greeted their team's arrival with a ticker-tape welcome not seen in British football since the days when Ossie Ardiles played for Spurs. And kick-off was delayed for a minute or two while Fabien Barthez cleared his area of streamers, though on this occasion no one could accuse him of time wasting.

Ferguson arrived here with only two recognised strikers and was down to one when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer suffered a knock in training. That meant a rare start for Diego Forlan, still trying to prove that he befits the description of goalscorer.

Scholes certainly does and attempted an outrageous effort from 40 yards in the opening minutes which almost slipped from the hands of the home goalkeeper Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos, who looked gun shy after the four goals he conceded at Old Trafford.

So dominant were United from the opening whistle that the fans' chants of hatred had already turned to resigned, resentful whistles.

Olympiakos (4-4-1-1): Eleftheropoulos; Patsatzoglou, Antzas, Anatolakis, Venetidis; Giannakopoulos, Karembeu, Dracena, Djordjevic; Zetterberg (Oforiquaye, 71); Giovanni (Choutos, h-t).

Manchester United (4-4-1-1): Barthez; G Neville, O'Shea, Blanc, Silvestre; Beckham (Chadwick, 63), Veron, P Neville, Giggs (Fortune, 63); Scholes; Forlan.

Referee: P Collina (Italy)