Deportivo 2 Manchester United 0
On a night when Manchester United's youth took centre stage it was Old Trafford's elder statesman who bore responsibility for their Champions League defeat in La Coruna.
Laurent Blanc's first-team appearances are surely coming to an end after the 37-year-old Frenchman found himself badly outpaced in the build-up to Deportivo's opening goal.
Although the importance of the game could be measured by Alex Ferguson's decision to spend most of the pre-match build-up watching potential quarter-final opponents Real Madrid squeeze into the last eight, the wily Scot must be aware that matching Blanc up with the likes of Raul and Ronaldo would be a suicidal act.
Blanc's ageing legs looked as though they were plodding through quicksand after 31 minutes when Albert Luque sped past him to the by-line where he cut a cross back which Victor tapped home.
Debutant Mark Lynch found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time three minutes after the break when he marred an encouraging performance by turning Victor's cross into his own net to bring United's record of one defeat in 23 Champions League encounters to an end.
A late booking for Phil Neville, which rules him out of the first leg of next month's knock-out tie, cast another black mark on an evening when Ferguson will have learned plenty about his youngsters and given a final realisation that Blanc's illustrious career must be brought to a close.