Carrick Retains Optimism

Michael Carrick has confidence in United's chances of reaching the Champions League semi-finals following Tuesday's 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich.

After being on the back foot for much of the first half, the Reds came out strongly after the break and took the lead through Nemanja Vidic on 58 minutes. Bastian Schweinsteiger equalised eight minutes later, but he will not be available for the return match in the Allianz Arena on 9 April after he was sent off just before full time.

But despite conceding an away goal, Carrick feels United have every right to be positive ahead of the trip to Munich: "It would have been nicer if it was 1-0, it's obviously not ideal but it's not too bad. We are still in the tie and we have a chance going over there.

"It was a bit frustrating going in front and then conceding a bit of a soft goal, but overall I think it was a pretty good performance.

"They are a good team and had the ball for long spells, but I thought we defended well as a team and on the counter-attack at times we looked dangerous. We knew it was going to be a tough night, it was never going to be easy so to get the draw is probably a fair result.

"We are not getting carried away, we know the task ahead will be tough. We are going to have to be right at our best to get the right result over there. We still have a chance, we have to believe so we can go over there and be really positive."

Left-back Alex Büttner, deputising for the suspended Patrice Evra, played his part in a resolute United defensive performance to earn praise from his experienced midfield team-mate, who added:

"He's played a couple of times over recent of weeks, and that's probably helped him getting back to match fitness. He's done ever so well, and this was a tough test for him but everyone played well. There wasn't really anyone below par and that's what we needed."