A below par Manchester United were upset 2-1 by an impressive Zenit St Petersburg outfit during their UEFA Super Cup encounter in Monaco.

Nani was back from suspension alongside Darren Fletcher in the Manchester United midfield with Anderson and Paul Scholes also starting.

Zenit St Petersburg looked full of running in the first-half and took the lead one minute before the break through Pavel Pogrebnyak.

The striker met Igor Denisov's flick-on from Alejandro Domínguez's cross to nod the ball across the line.

Zenit continued to trouble the champions of Europe and doubled their lead after 59 minutes with an excellent shot by Portuguese signing Miguel Danny - which flew past Edwin van der Sar.

United finally started to get some rhythm going towards the end of the game and claimed their only goal from defender Nemanja Vidic.

Veteran Paul Scholes added insult to an eventual 2-1 defeat with a red card following a stupid 'volleyball like' handball late on.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Anderson, Scholes, Nani, Rooney, Tevez Subs: Kuszczak, Brown, Park, O'Shea, Gibson, Campbell, Possebon

Zenit St Petersburg: Malafeev, Krizanac, Aniukov, Puygrenier, Sirl, Zyryanov, Danny, Denisov, Tymoschuk, Pogrebniak, Dominguez Subs: Contofalsky, Radimov, Kim, Tekke, Arshavin, Shirokov, Faitzulin

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)