Louis van Gaal believes his Manchester United side deserved no more than a draw on Wednesday night.

The Red Devils scored with 25 minutes remaining to force a 1-1 draw with CSKA Moscow at the Arena Khimki in Group B of the Champions League in a tale of two halves.

In the 15th minute, Anthony Martial had presented CSKA with a gift when he handled a cross from Mario Fernandes which saw Seydou Doumbia fire home after David De Gea had tipped Roman Eremenko's penalty onto the post.

Martial was able to pick himself up and net United's equaliser on 65 minutes, with a header from an Antonio Valencia cross, but van Gaal still felt a share of the spoils was the right result despite a much-improved second half showing from the visitors.

"I knew it would be a very difficult game," van Gaal said.

"They had the present from Anthony Martial and then it is difficult when you are behind.

"We could not play at a high tempo, it was too slow in the first half. We had to improve at switching from side to side and we did that. We could have won but a draw was deserved."

The draw has United sitting second on the group table with four points from three matches, equal with third-placed CSKA, and two behind Wolfsburg who defeated PSV Eindhoven in Germany.