RIO: United are devastated over their CL exit

Posted Friday, December 09, 2011 by The Sun

RIO FERDINAND admits Manchester United are devastated over their Champions League exit.

Alex Ferguson's side crashed 2-1 at Basel on Wednesday night to miss out on the knockout rounds for only the second time since 1994.

For Ferdinand, it was the team's costly failure to beat Benfica and Basel at home — they drew against both sides — that left them facing Europa League football for the first time in the club's history.

Defender Ferdinand said: "We are bitterly disappointed. The lads are devastated to have gone out.

"We have to look back to the games at Old Trafford when we haven't finished teams off.

"We've not done enough to win games at home and the manager has always said if you don't win your home games, you don't deserve to go through. That's been the case this season.

"European nights under the lights at Old Trafford and with the Champions League music coming on, that is what you live for.

"We've gone out early this season and it's very disappointing but we can't look at anyone else but ourselves.

"Against Basel at home, we were 2-0 up in a commanding position and could have been four or five up at half-time. For me, that's the game I'll look at that got us knocked out."

United now face the prospect of opposition fans' chants of 'Thursday night on Channel 5' to contend with as they drop into the European equivalent of the plate competition down at the local bowls club.

Ferdinand did his best to talk up the competition and the team in the immediate aftermath of United's Basel brush-off He said: "We've not been in it before but we are in the Europa League now and I've always said whatever competition we are in we don't want to come second, so we'll try to win it.

"We'll rally each other, dust ourselves down and move on to the next game.

"That's what makes this club so great, we don't dwell on what's gone on.

"We are disappointed but we have massive games coming up and have to make sure we are in the right frame of mind to win those games."

United have now gone out of the Carling Cup and Champions League in the space of a week and trail Manchester City by five points in the Premier League.

They also face their noisy neighbours in the FA Cup third round at the Etihad on January 8.

The season may look to be in danger of dying on it's feet — although full-back Patrice Evra is sure the players can bounce back.

Evra said: "I believe in the players — the only thing we can do is make sure we believe we can come back from this and have the belief we can win something.

"I'm not happy when you're second in the league and certainly not happy when you go out of the Champions League.

"I've not been happy from the beginning of this season's Champions League.

"I'll be happy on the day we are first in the table — now let's see what we can do in the Europa League."

United's first attempt at bouncing back comes on Saturday at home to Wolves.

Ferdinand added: "Only a couple of weeks ago people were saying we were going to be champions, so that doesn't change after a couple of bad nights in Europe.

"We've got a lot of players here with valuable experience over the last four or five years and that will come into play.

"I've no qualms or worries about the games ahead. We'll be up for it."

Despite all the talk, those United fans I travelled back with yesterday are not convinced after this latest setback. One insisted: "It was terrible. There was nothing there, nothing in midfield nothing up front.

"We need a big buy in January, something to lift us."

Those same fears were expressed by many in the wake of United's European failure in 2005 when they finished bottom of their Champions League group.

Yet within four years they had won a hat-trick of titles and the Champions League crown once more.

Now, as boss Ferguson counts down to his 70th birthday on New Year's Eve, it remains to be seen if he can produce another Reds resurrection.

While United went back to Manchester with tails firmly between their legs, Basel were cock-a-hoop after their famous victory sealed their place in the last 16.

And the Swiss side's skipper Marco Streller did his best to rub salt into United's wounds by insisting they deserved to go out.

Striker Streller, who scored Basel's opener on Wednesday night, declared "We played Manchester United twice and took four points off them — that is why we have deservedly gone through into the next round.

"It is an incredible feeling to score a goal against a team that I used to admire.

"I don't know where this will lead us. It feels amazing to be in the last 16 — I am lost for words, and people who know me will tell you that really means something.

"We had to withstand spells of United pressure, the pitch was difficult to play on and we were out on our feet by the end. But to have won this game is the greatest feeling ever."

Defender Markus Steinhofer — who was inches away from gifting United a vital equaliser when he volleyed against his own bar — added: "The result was not a massive shock, just a small surprise.

"The game was very tough from a mental point of view — but we went into battle and always believed we could win. We proved we could live with United and this win has topped everything for us.

"I almost scored an own goal but after that it was virtually certain that we would win. We deserved our piece of good fortune."

And Basel midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri maintained: "We wanted to score an early goal and to seize control of the game. We succeeded with both intentions."