Maccabi's 'two wonderful hours'

Maccabi Haifa FC manager Itzhak Shum put his side's sensational UEFA Champions League victory over Manchester United FC in the context of the continuing political unrest affecting his country by saying: "For two wonderful hours, everyone in Israel can forget all the problems we have."

Quality shooting
Shum added after the 3-0 win in Nicosia: "I am proud we have managed to do that." Any victory would have brought joy to followers of his club but a margin of this scale was beyond the dreams of the Israeli champions. While United had much more of the ball the quality and power of Maccabi's long-range shooting put them out of reach.

No qualification
However the win did not prove enough to continue Maccabi's Champions League adventure, Bayer 04 Leverkusen's victory over Olympiakos Piraeus FC ensuring that they take the other qualifying place in Group F with United.

Astonishing power
While the United lineup was heavily depleted nothing should be taken away from the Israelis because their first two goals, blasted home with astonishing power by first Yaniv Katan and then Raimondas Zutautas, would have beaten any defence in the world.

'Two of the best'
"They are two of the best goals I have ever seen," added Shum. "Zutautas shoots with his right foot, but his goal was scored with his left and Katan's strike was also perfect.

'Our best game'
"This was the best game we have played so far in this tournament. Today all my players were excellent, they fought in attack and in defence and they didn't give the United players any opportunity to score."

No regrets
No blame could be attached to reserve goalkeeper Ricardo López while United coach Sir Alex Ferguson maintained he had no regrets about leaving players of the calibre of David Beckham, Juan Sebastián Verón, Ryan Giggs and Fabien Barthez behind.

No record
Ferguson was forced to acknowledge that it was two "fantastic" strikes that had done for United on the night and prevented them extending their unbeaten run in the competition to a club record 17 games. "They came out of nowhere and until then Maccabi were never in the game," said Ferguson.

United's difficulties
"But once the second goal went in they just sat in, put ten men behind the ball, and made life difficult. We've got no great complaint about the result and the important thing is that we are in the next phase of the competition."

Already through
Safe in the knowledge before the start that the result was immaterial to his team's ambitions, Ferguson took the opportunity to rest several senior players.

New faces
Ricardo was handed his first start as was winger Kieran Richardson, just a week after his 18th birthday. Still to reach that mark is Danish forward Mads Timm who was sent on late in the game while Daniel Nardiello was blooded a little earlier.