"The goal was the highlight of the match," Ferguson told ITV after the game. "It was a magnificent strike by Louis, and a good bit of football."

"Cristiano [Ronaldo] fed him in, Louis came in on his left foot and it was a marvelous goal."

Saha scored his goal on the hour mark, when his kick deflected off Benfica's Brazilian defender Anderson into the back of the net.

The victory over Benfica was a nice retribution for last year, when the Lisbon side knocked Manchester United out of the European competition.

While Ferguson heaped praise on the French player, he admitted he was pleased with the entire side's performance, especially in the second half.

"I think it was a good performance by us. We showed good pace in our game," said the Scotsman.

Manchester United now has six points following their 3-2 win over Celtic giving them the top place in their group, still Ferguson has admitted his team needs to build unity.

"I hope it gives them the confidence and the trust in each other they need in these games.

"There were moments when we didn't have a great understanding about how to defend the last line and kept giving the ball away."

While Ferguson was left crowing, Benfica coach Fernando Santos admitted that Manchester United were a stronger opponent than last season, but remained frustrated by the loss.

"United were more attacking last year but this season they had a different strategy, which obviously worked better," Santos said.

"We controlled the game and given our domination, particularly in the first half, we should have scored.

"In the second half, Manchester managed to control things better, but it is too much of an unjust result for what Benfica did."