Rio Ferdinand says United were simply not good enough on the
night as the Reds lost their European crown to a hugely impressive
Barcelona side.
Goals from Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi in each half secured a
deserved victory for the Spaniards. Ferdinand was magnanimous in
defeat, but remained hugely disappointed by United’s
uncharacteristic showing.
“We just didn’t play well as a collective team and we didn’t
play well as individuals,” he told MUTV. “If
you don’t do that at times like this then you don’t deserve to
win.
“We’ve got no qualms, we weren’t good enough, we didn’t play the
way we can. If you do that in a final, you tend to get beat. You’ve
got to give credit to Barcelona, they played well. We needed to
play our best football and we just didn’t produce it.”
While defeat was hard to take, Ferdinand insists United are
proud of the season’s achievements and will learn from the
experience in Rome.
“We were all aware we’d had a good season up to now and the last
day of it would determine how our summer goes,” he explained. “It’s
a bit of a low point to finish it on but we’ve got strong
characters in the squad and I’m sure we’ll be back next
season.”