Sir Alex: Red Card Cost Us

Sir Alex Ferguson blamed two big moments either side of the break as United's bid to reach a fourth consecutive Champions League semi-final cruelly faltered.

The Reds were 3-0 up and cruising at Old Trafford until Ivica Olic, scorer of Bayern Munich's injury-time winner in the first leg, pulled a goal back for the visitors just before half-time. That blow was then compounded by a red card for Rafael early in the second half, bringing an abrupt end to the Brazilian's bright performance against Franck Ribery and handing Bayern a one-man advantage.

"Bayern would never have got through [had it not been for the red card]," Sir Alex said.

"With 11 men, we would have had no problem. Rafael's a young boy, a bit inexperienced, but they got him sent off. The Bayern players went towards the referee. They’re like that."

Bayern also risked the wrath of Sir Alex by giving Wayne Rooney a stern test of his ankle injury, following the striker's surprise inclusion in United's starting line-up.

"We expected that and the referee’s got to handle that," added the boss. "But that wasn’t the key issue. I think the key issue was losing the goal just before half-time and then the young boy being sent off."

Apart from the pivotal five minutes which straddled half-time, Sir Alex felt United played well enough on the night to go through. He considers his team to be very unfortunate to have been knocked out on the away goals rule (4-4) after winning 3-2 at Old Trafford.

"I don't think the best team has won the tie, I think we played better tonight than they did.

"I don’t think anything’s been missing in our campaign, and I don’t think we were fatigued tonight. With them having the extra man, they made the ball work. We defended very well and it’s taken an exceptional goal to finish the tie. It was a tremendous hit by [Arjen] Robben.

"I think we’ve done well. Our performance tonight was excellent, it was a great performance. We were very unlucky tonight, very, very unlucky."