'Best team won' admits Ferguson as Barça reign

Published on Thursday 28 May 2009 00:29

SIR Alex Ferguson failed in his quest to lift the European Cup for a third time and admitted the better team won after his Manchester United side lost 2-0 to Barcelona in last night's Champions League final in Rome.

United were bright in the initial exchanges of the match but after Samuel Eto'o opened the scoring after ten minutes, there was only one team in the game as Barca over-ran their opponents in midfield. The impressive Lionel Messi made it 2-0 after 70 minutes with an intelligent header and the Old Trafford men could muster nothing in response.

"In fairness we were beaten by the best team. We weren't at our best," said Ferguson, who led United to Champions League glory in 1999 and 2008 but was thwarted in his attempt to become the first to retain the trophy.

"The first goal was a killer, it was a bad start to the game. If you give them the ball they will keep it all night. But the best part of the game is that in adversity you always move forward quicker.

"We're all disappointed but we're a young team."

Ferguson added a second striker at half-time – with Carlos Tevez replacing the ineffective Anderson – in a bid to get his team back into the contest. But it didn't work and Messi doubled Barcelona's advantage.

Reflecting on that decision, the Scot said: "I brought on Tevez simply because I took the gamble of playing two through (the middle]. Ryan Giggs, in the first half, provided something and some parts of his game were good but what we needed was someone to be there all the time.

"But they defended quite well. We had plenty of time and we had some half-chances which we maybe should have done better with."