Utd Through And Ferguson Confident

Man Utd safely negotiated Lille last night with on-loan and soon to leave Swedish star Henrik Larsson, scoring the goal that effectively made the tie safe. Following the victory Sir Alex Ferguson claimed he was really looking forward to the fight ahead for the European crown and praised Larsson, stating, “He has been a credit to himself. His dedication has to his job has never changed.”

Ferguson reckons that all the teams left in the competition, including 3 English, are all very well matched and that there isn’t really one stand out team. He said, “The quality is there but there’s no outstanding one [team].

“There is not a lot between the sides left so we have as good a chance as anyone. But no matter which team you look at it’s a big game.”

As well as the 3 English clubs [Liverpool, Chelsea and Utd], there are 2 Italian sides [AC Milan and Roma], 1 German side [Bayern Munich], 1 Spanish team [Valencia] and 1 Dutch team [PSV Eindhoven].

Utd are, of course, closing in on silverware on three different fronts. One, almost certainly, is already “in the bag” [Premiership] unless incredible and complete disaster strikes, they are also still in the FA Cup and now the last eight of the Champions League and Ferguson was delighted to reach this far, which, if my memory serves me right, is the first in about 4 years.

The Utd manager said, “Being there is important. We have had a couple of bad years in terms of qualifying for this stage.

“Before that we had a great record of getting to the last eight but the last eight is not our aim.

“We want to go as far as we can and we want to be there in the final.”

Only time will tell.