Old Trafford display leaves Basel's Fink aglow

Sir Alex Ferguson, United manager
We were careless tonight. They made two or three openings in the first half and carelessness meant we threw the game away. We were battling at the end and we rescued it, but we were too careless before that. I said at half time that we needed to finish the game off after doing so well, but losing three goals at home is a wake-up call in many ways; the midfielders and defenders need to wake up, especially to the quality of this competition. [Danny] Welbeck was excellent in the first half and we showed great character. It's always there and it showed itself again tonight.

Thorsten Fink, Basel coach
I am pleased, even though we conceded the equaliser right before full time. The team has shown what kind of morale we have and what potential we have to play football. We did not want to hide, we wanted to capitalise on those small weaknesses in United's defence – and that's what we did in the end.

We had our best periods and created the most chances when we played the ball through the team and showed patience. If you play hastily, you run into difficulties. That was our problem in the first half, despite playing well. A 3-3 here in the Theatre of Dreams is a nice result, but if I had dared to dream, I would have dreamt of a win. The fact that we were not very far from achieving that makes me incredibly happy.