Man Utd were better than Chelsea: Ferguson

Manchester: Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has insisted that the better team progressed to the semi-finals of the Champions League after seeing his side knock out Chelsea with a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford.

The Premier League leaders were too strong for Carlo Ancelotti's side over both legs and still hold hopes of repeating their historic 'Treble' feat of 1999, as they are currently favourites to complete a domestic double.

Speaking after the game, the 69-year-old stated that his side deserved to progress, despite coming up against a strong Chelsea side.

"I think we played very, very well against a very, very good team," he told Sky Sports.

"Chelsea played a big part in that game today and there were moments after they had gone down to ten men in the second half and still had a go so credit to them, but I thought we were the better team on the night.

"We had some fantastic performers. Ji-Sung Park, Chicharito but all over, no one let us down."

Ryan Giggs once again proved pivotal for the hosts, setting up both goals for United and Ferguson praised the evergreen midfielder.

He said: "He's got great balance, composure and experience. Also, because they have so many more bigger players than us we had to have as many big players as we could that could still effect the game. When he have possession, Ryan can do that.

The Scot also reserved special praise for Wayne Rooney, who is returning to top form having suffered a difficult season both on and off the pitch.

He said: "He played to his maximum, he was up for it, in the first game he was outstanding and tonight he did his job right.

The United boss bemoaned Drogba's goal that looked to have given Chelsea a way back into the tie but revealed his delight with his side's fightback, with Park scoring only seconds later.

He added: "That was a stupid goal for us to lose but to respond immediately with Ji-Sung Park, whose record with goals in big games is fantastic and he’s done it again with a fantastic finish."

Before kick-off, Ancelotti inisisted that his side would adopt a different formation to the suspected 4-3-3 line-up, but Ferguson insisted that the only surprise was Alex's involvement in the match, having been sidelined with a thigh injury.

"The only surprise was Alex," said Ferguson, "I didn't expect him to play. He's been out for three months or so, and considering he's not played he did well."

The Red Devils are likely to face Schalke in the semi-final, who take a massive advantage into their second leg tie against Inter tomorrow night but Ferguson has refused to rule the current European champions out.

He said: "I’m going to the game tomorrow night. It'll be interesting. With the experience of Inter Milan, which they have got, you wouldn’t discount them but I really think Schalke should go through."

When asked about his side's poor record against German sides in the competition, Ferguson responded defiantly, stating: "We can make that change."

"You see the momentum the team. We’ve got a game on Saturday and the bonus that we’ve got is that we've got all of our players almost fit again now and that's a great boost to us.

"We've hit our form, there's no doubt about that. Seeing that second half against West Ham, the performance at Chelsea and the performance on Tuesday night, it's a great moment for us and the players are enjoying it and relishing the challenges that we’ve got now, you saw that tonight.

"We were playing against a very good team tonight in Chelsea," Ferguson continued.

"It was a competitive game, it never got nasty and it was a great advert for the Barclays Premier League and as I keep saying, English teams do well in Europe now because of the standard of our league.

"You need luck to do that [the treble] but we’ve got a massive game on Saturday with the semi-final [against Manchester City] and hopefully we can navigate that."