Ferguson rues price of pressure

Manchester United FC failed to progress from the group stage of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in ten years after being defeated by SL Benfica in Portugal. Paul Scholes gave the visitors the perfect start as he scrambled in in the sixth minute, but Geovanni headed Benfica level and the Portuguese held on to the lead given to them by Beto's deflected 34th-minute effort to take second place in Group D.

Ronald Koeman, Benfica coach
One of the secrets of this win was Geovanni playing as a centre-forward. I talked to him in the build-up to the game and said that it was made for him. And he delivered. United did not expect it and it worked well. We deserved this win and it's great to come back from a goal down against a side like Manchester United. We suffered a lot but for what we did in the first half we deserved to have the lead. The goal we conceded was down to the fact that we were a bit nervous and the defence lost concentration for just one moment. But then we reacted well, played some good football, created chances and scored. In the second half, United put on a lot of pressure. We resisted well even when they launched their final assault near the end, hitting us with a lot of high balls. Unfortunately we failed to score the goal that would have made it 3-1, despite having some good chances. I believe that at the end we were the deserved winners because we played a great match against a great opponent.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager
Our problem was that we gave away possession too much in the first half. We are very disappointed with this result and with our elimination. In the second half we pressured them but failed to score. The anxiety of needing to score was our enemy because it did not allow us to attack properly. However we had chances. Benfica played well in the first half and in the second half they mostly defended, although they did have two chances that could have finished the match. Benfica's win might be a fair result but if we had drawn it would have been fair, too. We are out of Europe because we dropped too many points at Old Trafford in this group. This was a special game for us despite the fact that we lost it. Great atmosphere, great stadium - it was a great game of football.