Hargreaves in form to justify the £18m fee for once

Instead, the Canadian-born England midfielder, 27, has spent much of this season as a substitute.

Middle man: Owen Hargreaves in the thick of the action last night

United have certainly developed into one of the best teams in Europe, but they have done it largely without the help of their £18million signing from Bayern Munich.

Last night Hargreaves emerged from the periphery of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad to play an important role in the type of game that he was bought for.

On this occasion, United followers began to see what the original fuss had been about. Hargreaves — deemed so important to England — has barely been handed the responsibility he craves by Ferguson.

Before last night, Brazilian Anderson, 20 this Sunday, had played more games than his senior colleague, as had fledgling Portuguese winger Nani.

One of Hargreaves' most recent starts had come against Bolton — as an emergency right back.

What Hargreaves, a Champions League finalist with Bayern, has made of it is open to debate.

Perhaps he would concede that early-season injuries and subsequent indifferent form has made it easy for his manager to leave him out.

But this was his moment and he rose to the occasion in a manner befitting his stature in Europe.

Bought by Ferguson as a holding midfielder, a player to stop United being embarrassed in Europe as they were by Milan's stellar midfield in last season's semi-final, Hargreaves was deployed in a more offensive role last night as his manager boldly left Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench.

Ferguson may have surprised everybody with his team, given that United's Barclays Premier League game against Arsenal at Old Trafford does not take place until Sunday afternoon.

Nevertheless, Hargreaves' energy and enterprise was such that United were as fluent and incisive as ever at times last night, especially in the first half.

With Michael Carrick playing the holding role in front of a patched-up back four, Hargreaves, along with Anderson, was encouraged to occupy the space ahead of that.

The manner in which Hargreaves supplied Tevez for the winning goal with 20 minutes left was typical of his contribution.

Receiving the ball wide on the right, Hargreaves delivered a clipped cross with his right foot that was once the trademark of David Beckham.

Certainly, Hargreaves' England colleague would have been delighted with its accuracy as the ball fell in front of Tevez, allowing the Argentine to head it past goalkeeper Doni.

It was a superb goal and the two players had served notice of their capabilities on several occasions prior to it.

Most noteable was a moment in the first half when Tevez sent Hargreaves clear down the right, and his superb first-time cross set up Ryan Giggs for a left-foot shot that Doni again saved well.

Another Hargreaves cross let Anderson in for a shot that the keeper also saved before Hargreaves burst clear himself just before the interval, only to be stopped by two defenders.

Having endured such a frustrating season, Hargreaves looked liberated last night and one can imagine that he felt it.

This was, after all, only his second European start for United. Ferguson later nominated him as his team's best player on a night when he finally began to look like the star United bought.