On nights when the power fails you will take energy from any source no matter how unlikely. Manchester United suffered a European breakdown last night and displayed a lamentable lack of nous as to how they were going to fix themselves.

There were nine minutes to go, the score was 1-1, Panathinaikos could hardly have been more comfortable. United, meanwhile, were scraping around in the dark.

Then Mikael Silvestre, who had endured an evening as bad as any of the erratic ones he has delivered frequently in his short career at Old Trafford, chanced upon a spark. Collecting the ball on the left flank Silvestre shimmied his way past a series of Panathinaikos players like David Ginola in full flow.

It was a scarcely credible sight but it must have happened because but it ended up with Paul Scholes tapping in the ball to give United a lead they certainly did not deserve. Silvestre had provided the unexpected imagination, Panathinaikos drooped, perhaps at the sheer shock of it all, and seconds before the final whistle Scholes added a chipped third, his second.

Granted, that was a great move, 32 patient passes and a brilliant finish, but it was exceptional compared to the lacklustre stuff United had produced earlier. Yet United won, and it was a result that seemed farfetched when Giorgios Karagounis equalised Teddy Sheringham's 48th minute opener. However, there will be no second European Cup triumph in three years if United play like this more often.

Staggeringly, Alex Ferguson saw it all differently. Very differently. "I'm very pleased with that level of performance," he said to jaw-dropping journalists. "I think it was one of the best quality matches we have seen here over the past 2-1/2 years."

Whether Ferguson was extracting the urine or not afterwards, lining up without Ryan Giggs proved to be a decisive blow to United's electricity. Hamstrung after his brief appearance in the Manchester derby last Saturday, Giggs was not even on the bench. David Healy was, though, good news for the man from Killyleagh.

United practically mooched out of the traps and had Panathinaikos possessed a striker of any potency they would have been at least two goals ahead by the half hour and could claim two other chances that should have been buried. Fabien Barthez was the principal reason why that did not transpire but the Greeks were guilty themselves.

Only three minutes had gone when Igor Sypniewski sneaked in dangerously into the United area and 60 seconds later the otherwise impressive Nikolaos Liberopoulos lifted an inviting shot over the crossbar.

Soon after Liberopoulos evaded Wes Brown's hesitant challenge, took the ball back from Sypniewski and ran in on Barthez. Liberopoulos should have scored but hit Barthez's legs.

With Karagounis clipping the ball gently round the midfield Panathinaikos must have found the room hard to comprehend. Before the half hour Barthez was again called upon to save with his legs from Krzysztof Warzycha, Warzycha having skipped away from Gary Neville and Brown with almost embarrassing ease and on the stroke of half-time Liberopoulos received the ball from Warzycha, nutmegged Brown and was once more denied only by Barthez.

All the while United laboured. Only Sheringham, Roy Keane and Scholes showed glimpses of inspiration. But they were glimpses. Sheringham fired a shot at Antonis Nikopolidis in the 30th minute and then placed a five yard header over three minutes later .

As the song says, things could only get better. How quickly and how simply that happened. It is one Barthez's many virtues that he strikes a ball with the cleanliness of Tiger Woods, and sometimes with his length. This was such an occasion. Yorke supplied a flick and Sheringham held off the very poor defensive effort of Rene Henriksen to plant the bouncing ball into the bottom corner.

Advantage United it may have been but when Liberopoulos was fouled by Gary Neville, Karagounis stepped up at the freekick and curled the ball over and around Barthez from 25 yards.

After that the stalemate looked unbreakable. But then some light went on inside the previously empty head of Silvestre. He danced his way into the Panathinaikos area and drilled the ball at Nikopolidis. The rebound fell to Scholes who knocked it in from eight yards.

If that was a surprise, the third amounted to an insult. But don't tell Ferguson that.

Manchester United: Barthez, P Neville, Silvestre, G Neville, Brown, Beckham, Butt, Keane, Scholes, Yorke, Sheringham. Subs Not Used: Van Der Gouw, Irwin, Johnsen, Wallwork, Fortune, Greening, Healy. Goals: Sheringham 48, Scholes 81, 90.

Panathinaikos: Nikopolidis, Henriksen, Galetto, Goumas, Warzycha (Kiassos 74), Sypniewski (Olivares 79), Vokolos, Basinas, Nikolidis, Karagounis (Vlaovic 66), Fissas. Subs Not Used: Kotsolis, Nasiopoulos, Koutsoures, Kola. Goal: Karagounis 64.

Referee: D Messiena (Italy).