GERMANY: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson wants his team to match other clubs Champions League titles

Record ID: 336018

  • Title: GERMANY: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson wants his team to match other clubs Champions League titles
  • Date: 26th April 2011
  • Summary: GOALKEEPERS TRAINING VAN DER SAR WITH BALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) GOALKEEPER, EDWIN VAN DER SAR, SAYING: "I don't know. I am just enjoying it. It's always nice when you are involved in a winning team and this has been done a lot lately and hopefully we can keep on doing that in the last couple of games that we have to play this season. This has been a reasonable career s
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2011 13:00
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  • Location: Germany, Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVABRBS9BN4E4AFHTC7ORZV9608Z
  • Story Text: Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson said on Monday (April 25) that he wants his team to match the Champions League record of other European teams.
    Although the Red Devils have won the top European club title three times, Ferguson wants to close the gap on clubs like Real Madrid and AC Milan who have won the trophy nine and seven times respectively.
    "I think the present group have enough experience now in Europe and I think it is where we should be," he said at a press conference in Gelsenkirchen ahead of United's Champions League semi-final first-leg tie against Schalke.
    "I think that the expectation from my point of view is always high with regard to the European scene because you do get envious of other clubs' great record in Europe and we are trying to get into parity with that, with Real Madrid, and AC Milan and Bayern Munich and Ajax, Liverpool. We really need to progress quickly to get to that level again."
    Ferguson has been boosted by the return to form of striker Wayne Rooney and the return from injury of key players key including Rio Ferdinand, Antonio Valencia and Park Ji-sung .
    "I think that Wayne's form has been absolutely fantastic the last two months anyway but the more important thing for us is the freshness that's come into our team in the last few weeks with players coming back like Valencia, Ferdinand, Anderson, Ji-Sung Park. At this time of the season it does sometimes happen that way that once these big big competitions come along, you find all your players fit and it makes a selection problem but you're glad to have them," he said.
    Ferguson, bidding for his third Champions League title and United's fourth, said criticism early in the season regarding their away form was in part unjustified given they have kept a clean sheet in all their Champions League away games this term.
    "Yes I've been disappointed by a lot of our games away from home, but there's no one who can point a finger at our home form. Our home form has been absolutely sensational, fantastic performances at home. So you are tossing a coin there, whether you come down heads or tails, if you talk about away form I can see the criticism, but not all the time, but you can't criticise our home form. It's been fantastic," he said.
    Veteran Dutch goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar has announced his retirement at the end od the season and hopes to end his career on a high note with another Champions League victory.
    "I am just enjoying it. It's always nice when you are involved in a winning team and this has been done a lot lately and hopefully we can keep on doing that in the last couple of games that we have to play this season. This has been a reasonable career so far so lets hope we can finish off nice," he said, going on to warn his colleagues to pay special attention to Schalke's Spanish forward Raul, the highest scorer in the history of the Champions League.
    "When I think about Raul, he is quite an amazing player of course," he said.
    "He played so many years at Real Madrid at a high level and all the goals he scored in the league for them and of course as the top scorer in the Champions League, so it is not someone that you can lose your sight of because he is so dangerous and he only needs a little chance to score a goal. Our defenders should be on their toes when they play against him."
    As for who he would prefer in the final -- Real Madrid or Barcelona -- should United advance, Ferguson said he would concentrate on Schalke first and take it from there.
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