Ferguson high on 'great spirit'

Sir Alex Ferguson felt his Manchester United FC players showed their quality in coming from behind to defeat Celtic FC 3-2 at Old Trafford in Group F. Special praise was reserved for man of the match Paul Scholes, while the United manager's opposite number Gordon Strachan backed his Celtic team to recover from this setback, saying "we will be alright".

Sir Alex Ferguson, United manager
We suffered from a lack of concentration. We went 1-0 down and this encouraged Celtic. In fairness it made it one hell of a game. We did fantastic to come back to 2-1 but we then gave away a slack goal. We could have scored but for some slack finishing and three fantastic saves. But I am happy with the three points. Paul Scholes was man of the match – his passing won us the game. The spirit of the game was great and the Celtic fans played their part.

Gordon Strachan, Celtic manager
The back four were fantastic, but the flair players didn't pass the ball as well as normal although they stuck it out for the team. The players will wake up tomorrow with regrets. They made honest mistakes giving the ball away. That said, I am really pleased with their attitude and as long as they do the team thing, we are alright.