VIEW FROM THE PRESSBOX
In the end, this was Ruud van Nistelrooy's night. The joy of having a striker with such predatory instincts is that, even when the team is struggling, there is a potential goal lurking and the Dutchman rescued Manchester United here in Switzerland, just as it had seemed they would begin the Champions League's second phase with the elegance of a hiker with a stone in his boot.
Basle, the Champions League's surprise package, are developing a reputation as a bright, indefatigable side with the small-town mentality of craving success against loftier opposition and, as well as exposing Liverpool a fortnight ago, they boasted the proud record of having scored in every single game this season.
Quinton Fortune's first touch of the night was to scoop Julio Rossi's header off the goal-line after a badly defended corner, but before there was even time for Fabien Barthez to offer his team-mate a grateful pat on the back Scott Chipperfield had lashed the loose ball diagonally across goal for Christian Gimenez to score from inside the six-yard area.
Something had to be done and an empurpled Ferguson duly acted, just after the half hour, by gesticulating on the touchline for O'Shea to switch to left-back, with Mickael Silvestre taking up the central role he favours and in which he regularly appears for the French national team.
How Basle will rue the opportunities they squandered. On the hour, totally against the run of play, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer delivered a deliciously inviting cross from the right and Van Nistelrooy, hardly able to miss, despatched a firm header beyond Pascal Zuberbuhler from eight yards.
The blood seemed to drain from the faces of the Basle players. Van Nistelrooy's second was a moment of individual brilliance, wriggling past two challenges along the byline before whipping a shot in off the far post from what seemed to be an impossible angle.
The Independent
When Manchester United took on Bayer Leverkusen in the European Cup semi-final, Roy Keane looked around him and saw naked fear in his team. Last night, at the other end of the Rhine, a weakened United side dramatically held their nerve to prevent themselves becoming a third British club to fall victim in Switzerland.
The game followed a very similar pattern to the 3-3 draw which saw Liverpool eliminated from the Champions' League here earlier this month. Christian Gross' side again dominated the first half, scoring the fastest goal United have conceded in Europe, and yet were decisively outplayed in the second. This time, however, Basle had not given themselves a sufficient cushion to survive an assault from Van Nistelrooy, who is virtually averaging a goal a game in this competition. Ferguson thought the first, a header from Solskjaer's beautifully-weighted cross, "killed" Basle.
Certainly, at that moment, self-belief was extinguished from them as quickly as the Christmas sparklers virtually the entire crowd held up into the night air just before kick-off, as if the stadium was expecting a rendition of "Bridge over Troubled Water", rather than afootball match.
As he walked off to give his half-time interview at the pitch side, Gross must have thought his team should have delivered a knockout blow. That they did not was largely due to Fabien Barthez, who might have given away a hideously embarrassing goal when tamely slicing a clearance straight to Basle's most dangerous player, Hakan Yakin, although by then the Swiss champions had accepted defeat.
Barthez would prefer to remember a fingertip save from Yakin's elder brother, Murat; racing off his line to put Scott Chipperfield off his stride when the young Australian had the net at his mercy and, most crucially, a brave point-blank save from Christian Gimenez less than two minutes after the restart, which Gross thought was the turning point in the game.