Keane "never touched Sousa"

ALEX FERGUSON cursed the refereeing blunder which he believes could undermine Manchester United's battling display in Germany, ruling Roy Keane out of the semifinal return against Borussia Dortmund.

Keane collected his second yellow card of the tournament in the 1-0 defeat for a foul on Portuguese star Paulo Sousa.

But Ferguson said: "He was very unlucky. I've defended Roy a lot of times in the past but that was ridiculous tonight.

"He never touched the player. Sousa missed the ball and so did Roy - they both completely missed it."

But the Russian referee, who also booked Gary Pallister, saw it differently and now United will be without their midfield anchor as they try to claw back the damage of their fourth defeat in nine games in this season's competition and reach their first final in 29 years.

Ferguson was upset witch the overall display saying: "They under achieved tonight - they had a lot of disappointing performances."

But he is convinced the game is well within United's grasp adding: "We've a chance, no question about that.

"There will be a marvellous atmosphere at Old Trafford, that will help us and the players will perform better, I can assure you of that."

One factor behind United's lacklustre opening was probably the last moment withdrawal of goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel through injury, with Dutchman Raimond van der Gouw coming in for only his fourth game of the season.

Van der Gouw was hurt in a collision with Pallister after only four minutes and Ferguson said: "Maybe the start did unsettle one or two of the younger players, that is possible.

"But the experience of games like this is good for them. We found it difficult to handle the referee, with his different culture and way of approaching things.

"It was a bad blow to lose Peter but it would have been a risk to play him if he could not be 100 per cent.

"It wasn't until I gave my team to ITV this morning and then had my team talk with the players that I learned that Peter was struggling.

"We decided to pick a team with Peter in it, do the warm up at half past six and then go to the UEFA official and explain that if Peter Schmeichel wasn't fit we wanted to make the change 35 minutes before kick off."

The 33 year old Dutchman was beaten by a deflection late in the second half but Ferguson said: "I don't think having a different goalkeeper made a difference then.

"But it maybe counted earlier when Schmeichel's sheer presence would have been a help. Raimond was trying to get his feet and his confidence and that came with Dortmund's best spell. "The collision with Gary Pallister after four minutes also left Gary with a long time to get going again he was limping for about 25 minutes. It was a bad start to the game for us and it unsettled us.

"I was disappointed nobody closed Dortmund down for the goal that was a bit unlucky for us because it got a deflection off Pallister and it came at a stage in the game where I didn't think that were going to score anyway.

"They had a bit of luck today, maybe it will be our turn next time. But we have lost a little bit of security for the return. It would have" been better for us if we had managed to get the away goal but now we cannot afford to leave things open for them."