After the mountain of publicity Amorim created at the weekend with his controversial comments, and his ‘sorry, not sorry’ attempt to clarify them on Wednesday, the Portuguese could probably have done with the kind of low-key victory United seemed set for until the crazy last couple of minutes.

The United head coach repeated his well-used phrase that his team have to “suffer” during the bedding-in period as they get used to his tactics.

One example of that is a failure to fill the space vacated when one of United’s three defenders breaks out of the line to press the ball or challenge a forward who has dropped deep.

Young midfielder Toby Collyer, making his first start under Amorim, reacted to stem one attack but until it becomes instinctive United will be at risk of being caught out, which is how Nicolas Raskin got a clear run at Altay Bayindir only to lose control of the ball and allow the Turkey goalkeeper to dive low to push it into the path of Ridvan Yilmaz, who fired over.

It is the kind of basic drill United have not been able to work on properly because they have had so many midweek matches since Amorim replaced Erik ten Hag in November.

That is why a top-eight place in this competition is so important, because it would mean three successive weeks at the start of February with no second game to crowd their schedule.

Nothing can be taken for granted yet. FCSB are also in the top eight and will not want to relinquish their place next week.

And Amorim also knows there needs to be a lot of work done off the field over the next 12 days before the transfer window closes, with doubts over the future of so many of his stars – including Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford – and finance needed to refresh his own squad.

However, thanks to Fernandes, at least they can do so with the intense pressure on them eased for a couple of days at least.