Inter won 2-0 in what was theoretically their away tie, and flew out of the blocks against a shell-shocked Milan team at the San Siro.
Simone Inzaghi's side looked like they could score every time they went forward, and Milan were lucky to only trail 2-0 in what was a more-than-disappointing first half.
Milan were criticised by BT Sport pundits throughout the evening, despite the team missing key men Rafael Leao and then Ismael Bennacer through injury.
Ferdinand in particular didn't hold back when asked by Steven Gerrard on the performance of Tomori, who has received rave reviews for his performances in Italy so far, but struggled on the night.
'I said before the game that in the big showcase games you gave got to perform if you want to be propelled into being a top player, and unfortunately today it wasn't one of those for him,' he said.
'I think one thing I would say is I don't think he won enough individual duels, I don't think he really impacted the centre forwards with any aggressiveness or challenges to really put a marker down at any point. They dominated.'
Ferdinand went on to reference Inter's repeated will to drive forward with the ball and the space their opponents often gave them during the game.
The hosts struggled defensively throughout, and Inter took advantage to take the 2-0 lead into the second leg next week.
'One thing they did have was really good balls into them,' Ferdinand added. 'They were allowed to get their heads up from either defensive positions or midfield and they were allowed to run with the ball freely and get good balls into the forwards.
'If you're playing good balls into the right side of the forwards to benefit them, players of Martinez and Dzeko's standards, they're going to make it difficult for any defender to be able to get near them and they do that today.
'It was a little bit of that, but also you've got to assert yourself in these games. You know what it's like Steven, you've got to put your marker down early in these games and not at any point really did he do that.'
