A cagey opening 45 minutes was followed by a decisive and ruthless second-half display from United, which saw the Turkish side casually brushed aside by three well-taken goals.
Darren Fletcher opened the scoring with the second-half whistle still ringing in the ears before Gabriel Obertan opened his United account with a stinging 20-yard drive.
Second-half substitute Bebe completed the job with a composed finish after being put through by a wonderful defence-splitting pass from Paul Scholes.
A hesitant opening to the game resulted in an extended early stand off as both sides took their time in sizing each other up.
Dimitar Berbatov failed to test compatriot Dimitar Ivankov when presented with two half chances, while Bursaspor looked reluctant to commit men forward on the counter attack.
When they eventually did pluck up the courage to do so, the home side succeeded in carving out the game’s first gilt-edged chance.
Sercan Yildirim made the initial attacking burst, and both timed and executed his through ball to perfection for the onrushing Turgay Bahadir, who will rue his decision to attempt to chip Edwin Van Der Sar with the far post gaping.
United were soon left to forage for the opener without their most potent attacking threat, as Nani lay stricken on the turf. A quick examination had the physio making the international gesture for a substitution, and Sir Alex Ferguson took his time before introducing Park Ji Sung.
In a five minute cameo the crowd were then treated to the best and the worst of Paul Scholes.
The evergreen midfielder had them purring with a couple of sublime, pinpoint cross-field passes before making an uncharacteristic and ridiculous mess of a simple cross: much to the amusement of the United boss.
Minutes later, Fletcher should have made better use of Evra's teasing cross as the Scotsman skewed his volley well wide unopposed, 12 yards from goal.
Bursaspor are currently unbeaten in their domestic league and sit top of the table, but things have been different in the Champions League with three defeats leaving them at the bottom of Group C and still awaiting their first goal in the competition.
The Turkish side do seem in a confident mood for tonight's clash and must have taken heart from the fact they left Old Trafford with only a 1-0 defeat a couple of weeks ago. With no key injury worries and United missing several star players the 17/4 offered by BWin will no doubt be of interest to many.
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