United beat a Europe XI 4-3 thanks to two goals from Wayne Rooney and one apiece from Wes Brown and Cristiano Ronaldo - the latter a sublime 30-yard free-kick of which the watching David Beckham would have been proud.

Marcello Lippi's hastily-assembled Europe XI were 4-1 down at half-time - Florent Malouda their scorer - but won the second half thanks to a double from substitute El-Hadji Diouf.

The Old Trafford encounter also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and was played in a fitting spirit of camaraderie.

Ferguson said: "It was a fantastic night of players relaxing. It's amazing when you can play without pressure that they can enjoy themselves this much.

"For everyone coming, it was a really good night."

He added: "It was good that there were so many young people here. Ticket prices were good for young people to get here tonight and it was good to see some fantastic football also."

Being a celebration game, the were the inevitable pre-match niceties. It was also announced that Beckham would address the crowd at half-time, much to the delight of the 73,000 in attendance.

Ferguson missed the emotional speech - as he was in the dressing room - but was not surprised Beckham received such a warm welcome in his first appearance in front of United fans for almost four years.

"I'd expect he'd get a great reception," Ferguson said.

"Even teams, when their managers have played for our club, always get a fantastic reception, quite rightly too."

In his address, Beckham called Ferguson the greatest manager in the world.

His former boss - who once accidentally kicked a boot in the then England captain's face - later reciprocated.

"He had great years here. He came as a boy and all his formative years were spent here," Ferguson said.

"It was a great foundation here before he went on to Real Madrid. He was a great player."

Europe XI boss Lippi echoed Ferguson's sentiments about the occasion but admitted he was disappointed so many high-profile players were forced to pull out through injury.

"It was meant to be a celebration and it was - the two jubilees that we celebrated," he said.

"In terms of players, of course the aim was to get really the best players in the world and some of them unfortunately got held up or injured over the weekend.

"There were some changes, as you all know, but what I saw on the pitch was a good performance and a good show for the 73,000.

"I thank all those players that came because some came at the last minute and were quite keen to play in this celebration match."

Lippi's side inevitably struggled to gel and he said: "It takes years to build a team and we tried to build one in an afternoon - there are some limitations with that."

United also had their injury problems going into the game, and Ferguson admitted afterwards that goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar would not be available until after the forthcoming international break.

He is also expecting to be without strikers Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer for the same period of time.

But Ferguson did calm any fears about first-choice central defensive partnership Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, who should both be available for Saturday's game with Bolton.

Ferguson said: "Nemanja had a small break in the cartilage in his nose and he went to hospital this morning to get some of the blood drained away, just a little clot. He's fine.

"Rio Ferdinand went for a scan on his ribs but he's okay."