Alex Ferguson confirmed local police had to step in after a fan with a laser targeted his Manchester United players in Istanbul last night. United opened their quest to reach a third successive Champions League final by beating Besiktas 1-0.

Paul Scholes nodded home the winner 13 minutes from time, sealing a game where the visitors were on top without managing to make their superiority tell. But the game was not without incident, with Ferguson revealing Jonny Evans was among those picked out by the fan.

“It was in the first half, although thankfully the police did something about it,” said the United boss. “They managed to get the culprit, which is good because I noticed it particularly on Jonny Evans. It seemed to be on him all the time.”

Ferguson was also alerted to a security problem behind his dug-out, although he was eager not to make an issue of that.

“Someone mentioned it to me, but I never saw anything,” he said. “I do know the fans made the loudest noise I have ever heard. They never stopped the whole night.”

And Ferguson Wayne Rooney’s reaction to being substituted. Despite ploughing a lone furrow up front on his own for an hour, Rooney trudged unhappily off the field and then threw his boots down in disgust as he made way for the joint arrival of Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov.

“It was always part of our thoughts to bring Wayne off,” confirmed Ferguson. “He had been playing as the lone striker for an hour, which is why he was always going to come off.

“He is never pleased to come off. He has so much energy he wants to play all the time.”