"There is nothing I can do to stop you saying what you want about the boy, and rightly so, I'd rather talk about the game in general," Ferguson told the press post-match.
"The important thing for me as a coach is to try and allow him to develop naturally without too much press and public attention - to just be as ordinary as possible. By not playing Rooney on Saturday, he was able to get in a few good training sessions. I think that helped him tonight. He obviously tired in the last 20 minutes. But, given that it was his first game since the European Championships, we expected that. I think he can only get stronger now."
Ferguson expressed his pleasure with the partnership of van Nistelrooy and Rooney: "The partnership between Rooney and van Nistelrooy was excellent. Our attacking play was the real feature of the game, it was very, very good. But it was Fenerbahce's set-piece moves that kept us under pressure in the second half."
Ferguson went on to explain his team selection:
"It was one of these situations that was forced upon me, Wes Brown had picked up a calf strain. Gary Neville has trained for the past week, but there was a bit of risk to that part. I felt that the number of games Roy has played so far this season made it a good time to give him a break. And I also wanted to see how Kleberson has come on in centre midfield. A lot of the games he has played for us so far have not been in centre. I think the boy is a really good talent, and I think he showed that. In the case of Ronaldo, we all know he needs to be given a rest."