'A night of throbbing disappointment for Manchester United concluded with Sir Alex Ferguson's team being eliminated from the European Cup and facing a lengthy inquest into their shortcomings at the highest level. Just as in the first leg, Hernán Crespo's second-half goal was decisive but the crucial factor here was Milan's expertise in subduing an attack that Ferguson likes to believe, wrongly it seems, is the most potent in Europe.
United have scored in 40 of their previous 45 Champions League fixtures but they could not manage it in 180 minutes against the accomplished and ultimately impenetrable Milan defence. Ruud van Nistelrooy will flinch when he plays back the video but none of United's attackers covered themselves in glory and Ferguson will be consigned to the role of distant spectator again when the draw takes place on Friday.
The financial implications of defeat are enormous. For starters, Uefa will swell the bank balances of the eight quarter-finalists with another £1.3m in prize money, with the possibility of more to come. But what price the prestige? The European Cup is the trophy that Ferguson craves above all else and, even if he has enough medals to fill a removal van, he does not conceal his anguish at having laid his hands on that 17lb hunk of silverware on only one occasion.
He will be even more distressed by the allegation, disputed by his players here, that he has inadvertently allowed his team to deteriorate in the six years since his solitary triumph. Even discounting the ghastly error from Roy Carroll that led to the winning goal in the first leg, United had been made to look dishevelled at Old Trafford. Milan are not ashamed of their superiority complex and, from the vertiginous stands in the Curva Nord, some of the 9,000 travelling fans might also have wondered whether the Serie A leaders inhabit the true Theatre of Dreams.'