Puffed-up Ferguson has the final say

ACCUSATIONS THAT they have been too negative over the past week persisted even in the wake of Manchester United's 1-0 win over Barcelona at Old Trafford on Tuesday night but Alex Ferguson's answer was as simple as it was emphatic as he contemplated next month's trip to Moscow.

"We're in the final," he said in unmistakable satisfaction.

Fifty years after the Munich air disaster and 40 on from the club's first European Cup success - a 4-1 defeat of Benfica at Wembley - Ferguson takes kindly to the suggestion that his side might actually be destined to lift the trophy for the third time. But he's not shy about his own role in getting United over the second-last hurdle, observing that by calling the Barcelona line-up and tactics so well, he had been better able to plot their downfall and always, he insists, in a positive way.

Frank Rijkaard, meanwhile, could only bemoan the fact the opposition had not played ball with his one-trick pony of a team in the way that would have allowed them to maximise their own chances of making it to Moscow and the wider fact that Premier League outfits are becoming so dominant in the competition.

"But for the fact two of them had to play against each other we could very easily have seen four English teams in the semi-finals because it's very hard to play against them," remarked the Dutchman ruefully. "They're very strong and very disciplined. They all get behind the ball when they're losing, they're very well organised, and they're always trying to counterattack.

"The only thing I think is that it's a pity because I think the English teams have more to give to the public but the results are very important. It's strange to see English teams defending, defending with their lives and then looking to counterattack. I think they can do more with their own spirit, their own culture but you don't see it in their European football. You see it in the Premier League. I watch a lot of those games but it's different when they play in Europe.

"I think it started with the foreign coaches who came here, changed things, organised teams very well and played defensively.

"It's great that they have great players," he concluded, "and it's very successful but I don't think it's the way for a team like Barca to play its football."

When his side was playing its football well, winning games and trophies, the argument would have held a little more water but after they struggled to force even a couple of half-decent saves from Edwin Van der Sar over the course of 180 minutes of football there is a deepening sense of crisis about the club.

After Tuesday's game the club's travelling support called for its president, Juan Laporta, to resign, while Rijkaard sat impassively as a Spanish journalist observed that with the side having failed to win a really big game since the 2006 Champions League defeat of Arsenal, "perhaps it would be best for everyone if you were just to go". Rijkaard insisted the thought "has never entered my head", and the reality is that having previously been viewed as his most likely next stop, a move to Chelsea looks less likely after the way his side was so effectively contained by the Londoners' greatest rivals for success.

Ferguson, of course, has been close to going for one reason or another on a few occasions and there was renewed speculation in Manchester yesterday that he might choose to walk away in the event this latest United side go on to complete what would be a remarkable double.

Given the way he savoured Tuesday's success, though, it's a little hard to believe he's going anywhere. Having scored another tactical victory over celebrated opposition, he was at the thick of the post-match celebrations and looked to be enjoying himself afterwards as the press came to pay reluctant homage.

He was magnanimous in victory and showed no sign of taking offence when Rijkaard's analysis was put to him. "What Frank is saying, I think, is that we didn't shwooo," he says with a darting gesture of the hand. "We didn't go hell for leather at them too early. I think he'd have liked that.

"I thought that if we stuck by the game plan of not surrendering space to them around the box then we had a great chance.

"And we're all delighted with the way it went. We needed a fantastic performance and I think we got one as well as a fantastic goal from Paul Scholes.

"It's not easy to beat that sort of Barcelona team because they're fantastic footballers. In Messi they have someone who can open you up very quickly. The fact that he doesn't track back combined with the fact that we encourage Patrice Evra (whom he expects to recover from a late blow to the face to be fit again for Saturday's league game against West Ham) to get forward was one of our problems.

"Look," he added, "because of the way they play there has to be an element of counterattack. I've watched them countless times and it's the same scenario. But at the end of the day I think we're the ones who are through to the final."