“Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and praise the
opposition and there were times in the first half on Tuesday
night when Real Madrid were awesome. At 2-0 up, they were
knocking the ball around like the Harlem Globetrotters.
“People will be saying they are the best team in the world,
if not the best ever, but it is our job to look for
weaknesses and we found chinks in their armour in the second
half. It is up to us to prove that great players are also
human beings who can wobble under pressure. I don’t care how
good they are, they are going to have big doubts if they are
going in 1-0 down at half-time in the second leg with almost
70,000 Reds on their backs.
“At 2-0 up, they started playing to the crowd. They are top
of the Spanish league, champions of Europe and feel
unbeatable. They have reason to feel that way, but someone
has to knock them off the mountain some time.
“With Ryan Giggs farther forward in the second half and a
more attack-minded game, I think we all saw how they can be
beaten. At 3-0 down, it was a question of us going for it
and we deserved the away goal for never giving in. We saw
them wilt a little when we scored. They lost their fluency
for 15 or 20 minutes. I would have been truly disheartened
if we hadn’t laid a finger on them but we gave them
something to think about. They know the job is not done.
“People are talking about how good they are but we have
played some top teams off the park in the past few years
and, for all the talk of their big players, we have a true
world-class striker in Ruud van Nistelrooy.
“Apart from his goal, you could tell that they hated playing
against him. Ruud was the big plus of the evening and, if
you look at his record, he is on his way to becoming the
greatest goalscorer United have had.
“An opening goal from Ruud or anyone else and there will be
some fight on at Old Trafford in a fortnight. I am gutted
that I won’t be on the pitch. Missing a European Cup quarter-
final is bad enough, but what really hurts is not having the
chance to help the rest of the team to put things right.”
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