QUOTES, REACTIONS, FALLOUT

“Ferguson told me in the tunnel that he thought Vitor had
made the most of it. I said I wanted to see it on TV before
I would make a comment but if he was right I would
apologise. However, if he has no reason to make the claim he
can apologise to me.

“Vitor told me he was diving for the ball, Keane left his
foot in and he felt a bit of pain with the contact. I
understand Alex Ferguson was a bit emotional afterwards
because with the players he had he should have done better.
You would be really sad if your team gets as clearly
dominated as that by an opponent who has been built on maybe
10% of the budget.

“Manchester United still have some of the best players in
the world and we go to Old Trafford knowing they play
wonderful attacking football and have the best centre-
forward in the world and the best left-winger in the world.
It will be hard.”

Porto probably deserved to score more than twice, and
Mourinho admitted that not scoring more may well cause them
problems at Old Trafford:

“We could easily regret that in two weeks' time. We were
much better than Manchester United but they are still in the
tie and they still have all those great players.”

Fergie’s view on the evening:

“We didn't underestimate Porto, it's not in our nature. We
were in control for 25 minutes but we let it slip away. Our
passing was poor and we got what we deserved. In fact, we
are happy to have escaped just being a single goal behind.

“Having started the game so well we sat back - and when we
got possession we didn't use it well enough, and away from
home you have to be really patient in terms of possession.
But there is plenty of football left in this tie. We've got
an away goal and can win this game - no question.

"We still have a good chance. The away goal is very
important and while we would always prefer Roy Keane in our
team, we have the option of dropping Paul Scholes back and
bringing Kleberson in. We know we need a goal to put us
through, so the main thing is that all our goalscorers will
be available to us.”

Talking about the red card incident, Fergie said:

"The goalkeeper has made a meal of it but you can understand
why the linesman has flagged because Roy has definitely
caught the goalkeeper. I haven't discussed it with Roy, but
I don't know if he could have got out of the road. There was
no malice in the incident, it is not Roy's style to do
anything like that. I'm surprised referees are not given
videos of the matches they handle before games. They should
be properly prepared and given videos. We've seen things
before from this team which are not acceptable."

Benni McCarthy:

"Maybe the referee a little bit over-reacted but in football
nowadays when the goalkeeper has got the ball you don't do
things like that. But I think for us it is even better if
Roy Keane is not there because he is probably the most
inspirational player that they have.

"With him gone I don't think there are other players that
talk as much as him, that drive the team to want to do their
best. So I think for us now we have got something extra
positive on our side. They might not have their best players
but they are never easy to beat.

“They make life difficult for you. Today we beat them but if
you look at the statistics we only managed to score (the
winning goal) in the 80th minute or something. For a team
that doesn't have the best defenders that everyone knows
they have, it was very difficult.

"We are just pleased we managed to win so we have got
something to go for and fight for when we go to Old
Trafford."

McCarthy himself was rumoured to have been targeted by
United in the summer of 2002:

"That was the rumour," he said. "I wish it were true but
unfortunately I do not have the potential to play in a big
team like that. I can play in England but if I play in
England, I don't want to be a bench player. That's why I
don't think I have the potential to play at Manchester
United. They have too many good players already."