Fergie hails special MU
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said on Wednesday he saw something special in his team and wanted them to prove it in their mouth-watering Champions League semifinal against Barcelona.
United reached the last four for the second successive season by beating AS Roma 1-0 at Old Trafford to complete a 3-0 aggregate win and now face the Spanish giants with the first leg at the Nou Camp where they won the 1999 Champions League final.
Ferguson told a news conference: “We are delighted to be in the semifinals and the fact that it's Barcelona makes it an attractive semifinal. We are looking forward to it.
“You have opportunities in life when you have got something really special in your club and I think we've got something special in this team.
“We want to go there and show what a good team we are. Barcelona have a fantastic history and is a very good club but we can't go there and be negative.
“We have to go there and be really positive and if we do that we have a marvellous chance.”
United failed to reach the final last season when they lost to eventual winners AC Milan.
But Ferguson believes his side will be better prepared to face Barcelona if Nemanja Vidic, Nani and Louis Saha complete their recovery from injuries and everyone else stays fit.
He added: “If we get a full squad for the Barcelona game I think we've got a very, very good chance.”
Ferguson rested Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney, who came on in the second half, against Roma but his side still collected a record 11th straight home win in the competition thanks to a 70th-minute goal from Carlos Tevez.
He left the trio out of his lineup to keep them fresh for Sunday's Premier League clash with Arsenal. United are top six points clear of third-placed Arsenal and three in front of Chelsea with five games left.
“We can trust in all of our squad and quite rightly because they are good players and this tells me that these players can play in any type of game,” said Ferguson who especially praised the contributions of Tevez, Park Ji-Sung and Owen Hargreaves.
United had chances to win more comfortably and could have been made to pay had Daniele De Rossi not missed a penalty, awarded for a foul by Wes Brown on Mancini after half an hour.
“That would have made a big difference to the game and would have made it a little bit nervous for us,” Ferguson said.
Roma coach Luciano Spalletti rued the penalty miss and other chances squandered but said United deserved to go through.
“We put in a good performance and can be proud of that,” he said. “We knew we'd have to take risks and make chances and the important thing was to exploit them. Unfortunately, we did not capitalise on them.
“Had we done so it would have changed the face of the game but we have to be realistic and over the two legs Manchester United did a bit more than us and deserved their victory.”
Spalletti believes United now have a decent chance of winning the competition for the first time in nine years.
He added: “They are certainly well equipped as a team and a group of players to go all the way. They have huge potential in the team itself and in individual players.”
United defender Rio Ferdinand required three stitches in an injury to his right foot but is expected to be fit to face Arsenal on Sunday.
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