Ferguson laments poor passing, missed chances

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has bemoaned his side’s lack of composure after they scraped past Galatasaray on Wednesday.

A seventh-minute strike from Michael Carrick proved to be sufficient to win United all three points in their Champions League opener at Old Trafford.

However, the Turkish champions had several chances to get back into the Group H encounter and Ferguson believes United were lucky to have come away from the game with the victory.

He said: “We expected a tough game. In the first half we gave the ball away too often and they counter-attacked really well.

“In the second half, though, we were much more solid at the back, and all the chances fell to us. We could have scored four or five in the second half.

“It was a good opening game, they were very confident in their possession, but all the good European teams are like that.

“You need to be confident that when you get possession you make it count. Missing the chances we did in the second half we kept ourselves on the edge.”

Despite the slightly disappointing performance, the Scot was pleased to see his side take maximum points following a dismal campaign in the competition last term.

“Three points in the opening game is very important, especially when you look at what happened to us last season,” Ferguson said.

“Last season we got a draw at Benfica and then a draw at home, so it is a bonus that we got the win.”

Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim rued his team’s bad luck but praised the character shown by his side away from home.

“We are sad about the defeat. When you look at the result, it is not positive but it made us happy to see the ‘Galatasaray spirit’ on the pitch,” he said.

“The players were nervous at the beginning but we played well after the goal until half-time.

“We knew we needed to go beyond our usual Turkish Super League level in terms of our performance.

“Not only could we have endured a bigger defeat, but we could have scored the equaliser and gone even further. We were denied by the woodwork on three occasions.”