Fergie hails Roma ruin

Stuart Brennan

April 11, 2007

RONALDO: Scintillating performance

UNITED boss Sir Alex Ferguson hailed the 7-1 Champions League thrashing of Roma as the greatest European night of his 20-year reign.

United tore into the visitors from the kick-off and a scintillating performance from start to finish was rewarded with two goals from Michael Carrick, who started the scoring, a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo, and one each from Alan Smith, Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra.

It sealed an 8-3 aggregate success and set up a semi-final with either AC Milan or Bayern Munich, who play this evening.

Asked whether that was United's best European performance under his stewardship, Ferguson (pictured) beamed: "Absolutely, the scoring tells you that. It was a fantastic per- formance. The play and penetration were absolutely superb tonight.

Confidence

"They had the confidence to believe in themselves after a couple of bad results in the last week."

Ferguson hailed Smith, who was starting his first European game since December 2005.

He said: "He's deserved it more than anyone. He's been patient. He's trained like a beast."

Fergie also praised Rooney, who scored in both legs, and Ronaldo for showing the "maturity" he was looking for. "We can't wait for the semi- finals now," he added.

What do you think? Have your say.

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Steve, Glossop (11/04/2007 at 13:50)

I'm not going to argue with him. The 2-3 win against Juve '99 stands out for me also. But for pure 11 man excellence & controlled aggression I don't think I've seen a United performance like that before.

Demo, Glossop (11/04/2007 at 13:51)

great to see ronnie and rooney scoring! on last nights display we look certain to win everything lets just hope we can carry it on til end of season! was really impressed by carrick as well he took his goals well! oh and mention to fletcher who had a great game for us against a decent opposition. Well done the lads

Balders, Tier 2 Stretford (11/04/2007 at 13:59)

lets all come back down to earth now though as we all know that whilst watching Chavski guarantees a machine like win against rovers at the weekend (prob' a boring 1-0 or they grab a last minute second) we will be subject to a nerve jankling performance, prob' going to a damned replay .... it's happened before !!

shanny, Hyde, Cheshire (11/04/2007 at 14:00)

Everyone said when the draw was made, Roma were the weakest team in the last 8. United were rubbish in the 1st leg, Roma lost interest after 3 nil last night, the 'performance' against Portsmouth is a better guide
as to how united are playing, which is not very well!

Danny, Wilmslow (11/04/2007 at 14:06)

Shanny Hyde, what a load of Roma Beat Lyon 2.0 in Lyon who were favourites they had til last night the best defence in the Champs League. just think never in your life time or even your grandchildrens life tme will city ever play like that.

Duncan, London (11/04/2007 at 14:25)

Shanny you really are a class A muppet arent you? But I think deep down you already know that.

george (11/04/2007 at 14:26)

If the team can concentrate like this in the defensive areas and express itself like this on the attack we ought to win something and entertain like no other teams do.UNITED have the ingredients to banish the Blue Meanies!

MR.P, Manchester (11/04/2007 at 14:30)

So Shanny, Hyde according to you Roma were the worst team in the last 8 and United are not playing very well!So are PSV better than Roma? Not a chance.Are AC Milan better than Roma? Not this season.Are Bayern better than Roma? Very debatable.So thats wrong, and did'nt we smash Blackburn a couple of weeks ago 4-1? Then did'nt we play Roma with 10 men for an hour in their back yard and only get beat 2-1 with a priceless away goal? Then last night smash Roma 7-1.Even on Saturday when we went 2-0 down with 89 mins gone we would have a draw if it wernt for David james.But of course, were not playing very well.Are we?

Steve in Brussels (11/04/2007 at 14:41)

Come on don't give the Bitter too much stick. I mean after all, we did just win 7-1 after a season of playing the best football in Europe, so let him focus on one of the handful of poor performances all seasons while he reflects on having the tallest floodlights in the land coz City are a massive club

COLIN, CANADA, Canada (11/04/2007 at 14:42)

When our style of football is clicking with everybody committed, we are very tough to beat. Chelsea remain a mystery to me (and I'm not even going to mention Arsenal) but with their players they have the ability to score a ton of goals yet I'm trying to remember when their margin of victory was more than one goal. You can certainly never count them out and Drogba and Essien are magnificent. Not as good as Roo and Ronny but obviously their depth in mid field is always going to give them that edge in every game.If Carrick has come of age and we get Park back soon we should edge the title. I just hope it doesn't come down to having to beat West Ham. Giggs was fantastic last night but he can't do it every game which is why we need Park back and KR on his bike.

Mick, Dublin (11/04/2007 at 14:48)

Can't believe anyone's actually bothering to respond to this Shanny character. He/she is just a pathetic wind-up merchant who never has anything interesting to say. The appropriate response is to ignore him/her completely. This is the last time I'll be mentioning him/her by name, that's for sure.

david the red, toronto (11/04/2007 at 14:56)

One of the finest displays of attacking football I have ever seen from a United side, and against one of the best defensive teams in Italy. The midfield display from Ronaldo, Giggs, Carrick, and Fletcher was off the charts.
SAF had better sign Ronaldo to a new deal, and break the bank doing it.

John A (11/04/2007 at 15:45)

Anybody seen the 'reports' in the Italian Press??? Would be fun to read a translation...

ronaldo, manchester (11/04/2007 at 15:50)

Your sat in the pub in Manchester and you see on text on the TV that Real Madrid have beaten Roma 7-1,you would be off to the bookies like a shot so what must have it been like in Munich or Milan,Barcelona or Stockport!!!!!!!!!!!!
Outstanding performance.

Michelle, Manchester(born) Milan(live) (11/04/2007 at 16:07)

I've read Italian papers today, nothing but praise for United! Total disbelief for what happened to Roma. 7-1 what can they say! Well done lads!!

kendod, Orlando (11/04/2007 at 17:45)

There isn't a team on earth that could have beaten United the way they played last night. It showed that English style, all out attack is the best way to frustrate any European team. Let's keep playing this way and not be drawn into negative CL style that Fergie usually goes with. A fantastic night for the reds, my local is still buzzing.
kendod.

Morrissey's Cat, Manchester (11/04/2007 at 22:29)

I have it on very good authority, from a bloke in the pub, that the Police asked Roma to throw the game to avoid further trouble outside the stadium.

They went above and beyond the call of duty when they not only threw the game, but decided to let a few extra easy goals in to calm the belligerent Utd fans.

Therefore I believe that Roma should go through to the semi-final instead of Utd as a reward for their services to fair play and European good will.

Awayfromhome, Heaton Moor (11/04/2007 at 23:12)

As an Arsenal fan living in Manchester for the last six years, I take my hat off to you for a great performance last night. Excellent attacking football and clinical finishing (something we have been lacking for a few years now). However, having been lucky enough to go to the game last night, I must say that I was absolutely appalled by the behaviour of the United minority (a couple of hundred no less) that demonstrated what I can only call pure evil towards the Roma fans before the game. I witnessed countless beer cans and bottles thrown towards a defenceless group of away fans waiting to get into the ground (including parents with children) and also individuals on mobile phones trying to co-ordinate organised attacks towards them. I see various comments that this is a reaction to the way that United fans were treated in Rome, but for me that's no excuse, you don't make anything better by dishing out the same.

Behaviour like this in England I haven't seen since the eighties and these mindless idiots do nothing to enhance the reputation of english fans throughout Europe. As a side point, I took my 6 year old daughter to the M.Utd v Arsenal FA Youth Cup semi a couple of weeks ago and was similarly unimpressed by the abuse and language that family groups were subjected to (on both sides).

Come on United, don't let these fools ruin your glory.

Good luck for the semi's

Smithy, Perth - Australia (12/04/2007 at 00:53)

I know it was a fantastic result but lets not forget, this is the team that allowed 10 men to score a vital away goal in an intense atmosphere and it could have been more, and then only scored 2 fairly lucky goals. I don't think Roma compare well with the AC and Juve teams we've played in the past. It was an awful defensive performance by them and a lot of our inconsistent performers were at their peak so there is no saying they will do the same next time around (e.g. Giggs awful at Portsmouth amazing against Roma!). My main concern is that we are short at the back and both O'Shea and Ferdinand seemed to have injury problems. Can't find any news about how there fitness is, anyone heard?
Thats enough of a dampner on things though, well done to the lads for a clinical and entertaining performance. No matter how many trophies they win Chavski will never leave fans awestruck like that.

redmark, manchester (12/04/2007 at 00:56)

bring on ac milan 1 italian team out 1 to go super reds for the cup.
Come on the reds.
utid.

Birdy, Ireland (12/04/2007 at 09:21)

Particularly delighted that we walloped Roma to rub it in to that annoying vacuous Totti. He was mouthing before the match and was full of bluster and it was great to see him and his side humiliated and cast as pariahs back home for disgracing the national game

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