United's first place pleases Sir Alex
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
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Sir Alex Ferguson was happy as Manchester United FC's 1-1 draw with Valencia CF clinched top spot in Group C, but believes they could have won; Unai Emery praised his young team.
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Sir Alex Ferguson was happy with Manchester United FC's 1-1 draw with Valencia CF that clinched first place in UEFA Champions League Group C but felt that his team had the chances to win comfortably. Valencia, like their hosts, were already through to the round of 16 and coach Unai Emery was delighted with the performance of some of his younger players.
Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager
I think we made a lot of chances, played a lot of good football and five minutes after we scored we should have been two up. But then we just settled, we just tried to see out the game and sometimes that can be dangerous. It's a psychological thing and of course you have young defenders there. The important thing is we played a lot of good football, we made a lot of chances and we should have scored a few goals.
Until last week we went 29 games without losing, for instance, and eventually you're going to lose. Tonight we were going for six clean sheets and we didn't get it, but the important thing is winning the group is more important than a goal record. I don't know who we can get next, but you get what you get – the most important thing is the home [second leg].
Unai Emery, Valencia coach
A draw was a fair result but we came close to winning; at 1-1 we had three decent chances to score a second. We competed well. This was a good opportunity to judge my team's capabilities and also to have a look at some players who don't get a run that often but who are nonetheless going to be important in upcoming games. In this sense we have grown stronger as a team tonight.
Sure there are areas in which we can improve but I'm optimistic on that front. We had to take a gamble on [third-choice goalkeeper] Vicente Guaita but he confirmed just how far he has evolved in his position and how much he's improved. He's a great benefit to the club. The performance of [Alejandro] Domínguez also made me happy. He has a great attitude in training and you can see he is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed.
