Wayne Rooney made a sensational debut for Manchester United as he netted a hat-trick in the 6-2 rout of Fenerbahce at Old Trafford.
It came in a 37-minute spell between goals from Ryan Giggs, Ruud van Nistelrooy and David Bellion as United gorged themselves a woeful Turkish defence.
Seldom has a debut has been as long-awaited as the 18-year-old's, as he recovered from a broken metatarsal suffered while on England duty in Euro 2004.
United reeked havoc with a poor Fenerbahce defence although the Turks exploited weaknesses in the Reds back-line in a spirited second-half fightback.
Rooney's opening moves had ranged from one brilliant pass to Bellion, one crushing tackle administered and one received, but it was from another source that United opened the scoring in the seventh minute.
Giggs started the move with a pass to Kleberson, the Brazilian took the ball to the left wing beat Luciano and then provided the perfect cross into the centre where Giggs sprang into the air to send his glancing header from 12 yards into the right corner of the net.
Rooney almost opened his scoring account for United seven minutes later when he raced on to van Nistelrooy's pass, beat Ozat and goalkeeper Rustu Recber before curling his shot just over the bar from the right by-line.
But the crowd did not have long to wait as Rooney made it 2-0 in the 17th minute. Giggs and van Nistelrooy carved the opening through the middle for Rooney to race clear and score with a sweet left-foot shot from the edge of the box.
Ten minutes later Giggs found Rooney lurking ten yards outside the Fenerbahce box and he superbly sidestepped Ozat before scoring with a low right-foot shot from 20 yards.
Fenerbahce rose from the dead at the start of the second half and pulled a goal back a minute after the restart.
Alex's corner was poorly defended by United and Marcio Nobre punished them when he scored with a crisp low left-foot shot at the far post from eight yards out.
But there was to be no stopping the hero of the hour when Rooney made it 4-1 after 54 minutes.
Luciano fouled van Nistelrooy two yards outside the Fenerbahce box and Rooney curled a glorious right-foot shot over the defensive wall and beyond Rustu into the top left-hand corner of the net.
Back came Fenerbahce to reduce the arrears five minutes later. Another Alex corner caused problems in United's defence.
Goalkeeper Roy Carroll made a brilliant save to keep Nobre's close-range header, but the ball was only hacked clear to Tuncay 20 yards out and he scored with a fierce left-foot shot.
United composed themselves and hit back with another fine goal in the 78th minute.
Darren Fletcher's deep cross from the right found van Nistelrooy at the far post and the Dutchman took the ball down with ease before turning and hammering in a right-foot shot from ten yards.
Rooney turned goal maker when he nodded the ball on for Bellion to score with a low right-foot shot from 12 yards on the right side of the box.
Ozat hit a United post with an 86th minute drive from the left side of the box, but this was Rooney's night.