Back-to-back finals was a big deal, says Sir Alex Ferguson

Published on Tuesday 24 November 2009 22:59

SIR Alex Ferguson believes the strife so many of Europe's big clubs have endured in the Champions League this season proves Manchester United's achievement in reaching consecutive finals has been badly underestimated.

While the Red Devils have already qualified for the knockout phase and are hoping to confirm their status as Group B winners by beating Besiktas at Old Trafford tonight, a clutch of their biggest rivals are by no means certain to get through.

Liverpool and Bayern Munich may have captured most of the attention, but Barcelona have also struggled and AC Milan and Real Madrid have hardly confirmed themselves among the tournament favourites with their performances in a group also containing Marseille and FC Zurich. Their results are the ones Ferguson is alluding to when he outlines his case for United to be lauded.

"There are one or two more difficult groups than we anticipated," he said. "The one with Rubin Kazan, Barcelona, Dynamo Kiev and Inter Milan is a real group of death. Madrid and Milan are in the same group and they are finding it difficult. It shows how tough it is to retain the cup as we nearly did and maybe our achievement has been underestimated because you see how difficult the others are finding it."

Meanwhile, Chelsea face Porto tonight, with both sides having already qualified from Group D. The Portuguese club's coach, Jesualdo Ferreira, is confident his side can take a big step towards topping the section with a victory this evening. "Chelsea are having a very strong Champions League and have one more point than us, but Porto can win against a very strong opponent," he said.