Sir Alex: It's Not Over

Sir Alex Ferguson got his wish: a 1-0 win to take the Emirates Stadium for next Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final, second leg. But he couldn’t hide his disappointment at not making the most of United’s dominant display.

The Reds boss admitted United could have all but booked a place in Rome’s final next month, but instead he’ll settle for a slender but certainly advantageous lead at the halfway point.

“Of course you have to be disappointed that we didn’t take more of our chances,” he told reporters. “The goalkeeper [Manuel Almunia] made three fantastic saves. But the pleasing aspect for me was that we said before the game we wanted to score and not concede. We’ve done that.

“The performance level was very good and we have given ourselves a good chance of getting to the final. The tie isn’t over, of course, but we have the players who can score a goal, and we will be a big goal threat at the Emirates.

“We did very well with some terrific play at times. But it was reminiscent of the FA Cup final we had against Arsenal in 2005, where they won on penalty kicks after we’d had so many chances… at least we scored this time! And we haven’t lost an away goal, that is the key to it all.”

Sir Alex wants to see a similarly colossal defensive display at the Emirates – although United may have to do that without Rio Ferdinand, who sustained a rib injury. “Arsenal had possession, without really doing anything. They had a half chance from [Niklas] Bendtner’s header, but otherwise we contained them very well. That’s credit to our defending. When we concentrate, we can produce excellent performances like that. We need that to get through this tie, but I think we can also score.”

The Reds boss has promised a cracker at Old Trafford, but only his team kept up that part of the bargain. Arsene Wenger vowed that the world would see a different Arsenal in six days’ time. That may be the case, but United are ready to go the distance if necessary.

“Arsenal have to be [different next Tuesday],” added Sir Alex. “Arsene will be thinking it was a good day for him. They could have been out of the tie, but they’re not. The other way to look at it is that we tend to do things the hard way, and tonight we perhaps frustrated our fans where we should maybe be in the final, but we’re not. That’s the nature of this club, we’ve done it many times. We did it in the last round, and we might need to go right to the wire again.”