Galatasaray 1 Man Utd 0: Ferguson content with ‘reasonable’ display

Sir Alex Ferguson chose to praise his young Manchester United side for a “reasonable performance” after the Red Devils lost their 100 per cent record in the Champions League at Galatasaray.

United could have taken an early first-half lead when former Crewe Alexandra youngster Nick Powell sent a header crashing against the Galatasaray crossbar.

Anders Lindegaard made a superb close-range save from Felipe Melo in the second half but from the ensuing corner, Burak Yilmaz rose above Powell and Darren Fletcher to give the home side a 54th-minute lead.

The Red Devils, who had already qualified for the knockout, almost levelled immediately when Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernández combined – but the Mexico international hesitated and the chance evaporated.

“Our temperament was good, the crowd never affected us,” Ferguson told Sky Sports.

“We put on a reasonable show. The possession was good and the attacking play was good. We had one or two good opportunities in both halves. They had few strikes from outside the box and our goalkeeper did well. Otherwise we coped well.”

Darren Fletcher, who captained United in Turkey, admitted the Red Devils were punished for their wasteful finishing in the first half.

“In difficult conditions, the pitch wasn’t great and it was an intimidating atmosphere, but I thought we came here and played extremely well,” added Fletcher.

“We had a good first half but as soon as they got the goal, they slowed the game down and got behind the ball in the second half and made life difficult for us.

“But we really should have got a goal in the first because we had some great opportunities when we broke on the counter-attack.”

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