• Europa League

Fergie offers no excuses for Utd defeat

March 15, 2012

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his side were well and truly beaten after they were dumped out of the Europa League by Athletic Bilbao.

United never looked like overturning their 3-2 deficit from last week's first leg at Old Trafford and fell further behind to goals from Fernando Llorente and Oscar de Marcos in each half.

Wayne Rooney pulled a late goal back but by that time Ferguson had already removed Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs with an eye to this weekend's Barclays Premier League match at Wolves.

"We can't complain. In the first half we gave away a real soft goal. That was the last thing we wanted,'' he told Channel Five.

"At the start of the second half they did really well and could have scored two or three more goals.

"We did better later on but nowhere near enough to win.''

United are top of the Premier League and Ferguson admitted he made his three substitutes with Sunday's trip to Wolves in mind.

"We decided to take Rio and Michael and eventually Ryan off because we were thinking of Sunday,'' said Ferguson, who denied their exit would boost their league hopes.

"It's not a sense of relief (to go out) because there are still ten games to play in the league,'' he said.

"There is still a lot to do. I think the key thing is we have to make sure we win on Sunday.''

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Close

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices