THEY stepped into ‘Hell’ and came face to face with the old devil himself.

But Manchester United escaped from Jose Mourinho’s lair with a point in another night of European mayhem.

Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands as he faced his old side

Christian Eriksen opened the scoring for Manchester United

Amid the chaos, Mourinho was red-carded, Andre Onana pulled off a ridiculous double save and Erik ten Hag survived another tactical brainstorm despite Youssef En-Nesyri’s header cancelling out Christian Eriksen’s opener.

Having conceded 17 goals on their previous five trips overseas, this was actually a pretty respectable effort from Ten Hag’s dysfunctional team – who have now drawn three out of three in the Europa League and face a battle to avoid a humiliating early elimination.

They have now failed to win in European competition for an entire year, since a 1-0 home win over Copenhagen on October 24, 2023.

Despite Ten Hag fielding a full-back as a ‘false ten’ and dropping Rasmus Hojlund, they ended up relieved to avoid defeat.

Mourinho, of course, is never knowingly upstaged and the tantrum he chucked when Bright Osayi-Samuel was denied a second-half penalty earned him a place in the stands.

He speaks plenty of languages, the Special One. And two of them are ‘foul’ and ‘abusive’.

With Bruno Fernandes suspended after his red card in Porto, Ten Hag opted to play full-back Noussair Mazraoui as his No10 – to the bafflement of many.

And despite his winner against Brentford on Saturday, Hojlund was benched.

Ten Hag rarely does the obvious thing. But not in a good way.

The Sukru Saracoglu Stadium was packed and raucous well before kick-off.

When United were in possession, the shrill whistling of the home crowd perforated eardrums.

But it was Fenerbahce who set the early pace – especially their former Newcastle box-of-frogs Allan Saint-Maximin – all nutmegs, shoulder drops and slalom runs at the United defence.

Former QPR man Osayi-Samuel skinned Lisandro Martinez but shot into the side-netting.

This was no stereotypically negative Mourinho team.

And Rashford had just been booked for a foul on Sebastian Szymanski when, against the run of play, United fashioned a fine counter-attacking goal.

Manuel Ugarte won possession, Alejandro Garnacho sprinted down the left and Mazraoui fed Joshua Zirkzee, who cut back for Eriksen to thump his shot into the corner of the net.

Eriksen blasted into the top corner in style

Rashford ought to have doubled the lead soon after, cutting inside from the right but screwing his shot just wide of the far post.

But United were still having to defend with guts and with desperation – especially when Ugarte produced an outstanding sliding block to deny Dusan Tadic from close range.

Mourinho was doing his conkers at this – and soon started berating the fourth official after Zirkzee went down injured.

It was becoming a frustrating night for the old rogue – especially when Andre Onana decided to channel the spirit of Gordon Banks with an astonishing double save to deny En-Nesyri.

Andre Onana produced a thrilling double save

Mourinho could only laugh at the goalkeeper’s heroics

The Red Devils stars hailed Onana as United led at the break

First, the Moroccan centre-forward’s downward header was met with a gob-smacking tumbling stop, then the Cameroonian keeper leapt to his feet to push away a second nodded effort after Tadic had teed up En-Nesyri again.

The striker grinned as if he had just fallen victim to a strange optical illusion. And perhaps he had.

United led at the break but then they had often done so during their shocking recent run of European trips.

Mourinho had slapped Onana on the back in the tunnel at half-time but within four minutes of the restart, the United keeper was powerless to stop Fenerbahce equalising.

Saint-Maximin delivered the deep cross from the left and En-Nesyri, with another downward header, managed to avoid another miracle and beat Onana at the third time of asking.

Youssef En-Nesyri headed Fenerbahce level just after half-time

Onana could not produce another memorable save to prevent the equaliser

In the stands, the drums were thudding, the punters were bouncing and United knew they were up against it on foreign soil yet again.

Ten Hag responded by abandoning the Marzaroui ‘false ten’ experiment – bringing on Hojlund and Casemiro for Zirkzee and Victor Lindelof in a major reshuffle.

Then came Mourinho’s ejection from his technical area – the Fenerbahce boss raging at an unrequited penalty appeal when Ugarte upended Osayi-Samuel.

His mood worsened when Fenerbahce did not get a penalty as Manuel Ugarte challenged Bright Osayi-Samuel(!)

Referee Clement Turpin brandished the red card for the Special One

He was spotted sulking in the stands

It was a decent shout followed by some indecent shouts from Mourinho, who was sent packing to the stands after a lengthy exchange of opinions with ref Clement Turpin.

Would he be smuggled back into the dugout in a laundry basket, one of the tricks he used to defy a touchline ban during his Chelsea days?

Antony had to be taken off on a stretcher near the end

Erik ten Hag’s experiment didn’t work as planned