Football / European Champions' League: Ferguson takes heart from latest European lesson
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.ALEX FERGUSON, the Manchester United manager, was denied the home victory he had wanted against Barcelona last night but nevertheless was satisfied with a result that kept his team at the top of Group A in the Champions' League.
'It's a good point when you're 2-1 down with 15 minutes remaining,' he said.
'You need a break and we got one but I think we deserved it. We gave away two bad goals but we went for their throats and it paid off. The match was a wonderful advert for European football.
'Both Gothenberg and ourselves have to go to Barcelona and I think those matches will prove crucial as to who will qualify for the knockout stages.
We're capable of getting a result in Spain and I think tonight's match proved it. We always looked capable of scoring.'
Ferguson provided a contentious talking point before the match started by choosing to leave out the club captain, Steve Bruce, in favour of Paul Parker, who will go into hospital in the next few days for an operation on an ankle injury that has restricted the England defender's apearances this season.
Bruce, who came on as a substitute when David May was injured, revealed that Ferguson had taken him on one side on Tuesday to tell him he was being excluded. 'I was disappointed, naturally,' he said, 'but the manager said he had done it for tactical reasons and I have to accept that.'
Ferguson added: 'I felt we needed some extra pace in the centre of the defence to counter the threat of Romario and Stoichkov. Paul Parker is probably the only British player with the ability to shut out players completely with his marking. I think that was proved again.'
Nevertheless the Brazilian World Cup striker still managed to slip his marker's clutches to score after 34 minutes, leading the United manager to fear his team's relative European inexperience might prove costly.
'When he scored I thought, 'how many lessons are we going to have to learn?'
' Ferguson said. 'I told the players at half-time that they had won the match once and they could go out and do it again. The second goal changed that, however, and in the end it required tremendous fighting qualities. At 2-1 down we needed a player who could lead by example and Paul Ince provided that. I thought he was magnificent.'
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments