Rio Ferdinand pinpointed a strong collective attitude as the key reason for Manchester United beating Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

A penalty from Bruno Fernandes and a late strike from Marcus Rashford, either side of an Anthony Martial own goal, gave Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side the perfect start to their continental campaign.

While Rashford's dramatic late strike will earn the plaudits, Ferdinand highlighted the defensive aspects of United 's performance as key.

Axel Tuanzebe and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were among the visitors' stand-out performers, making crucial interventions to deny the likes of Kylian Mbappe.

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“It was fantastic," Ferdinand told BT Sport. "At the start of the season, there has been a lot of negativity surrounding Manchester United and we said before the game that this was maybe a game that could kick-start the season.

“The performance was first class and the result was even better. The players will take huge confidence from this as individuals but I think more importantly is that as a collective, as a group, they will grow from this, definitely.

“We spoke before about players not taking responsibility and smelling danger. Every time this PSG team got through, because teams with great players are going to create moments, and they done that today.

"But there were players taking responsibility in their box, covering positions, filling gaps, wanting to be there to defend - which we haven’t seen as much in the early part of this season.

“It’s about having the balance, it’s about being able to do different parts of the game. Having that solid team, sitting back, but then being able to switch the button, take the initiative and really break teams down in attacking.”