Gordon Strachan cast appreciative eyes over his former gaffer's side following United's comprehensive 3-0 victory in the Group E Champions League match "Wayne Rooney was unplayable." he said "When you see players like that you have to say he's a world-class player, backed up by a couple of other world-class players and six or seven international players."
"That's the best side we've played and physically we couldn't match them and that told the longer the game went on" he told reporters ""In the past couple of years we have played some terrific sides but I think that's one of the best performances I have come across watching European football. It will take some team to beat them, that's for sure."
In the first half hour the team probably did as well as could be expected and we had even forced a couple of saves out of Van Der Sar whilst Artur Boruc had yet to be really troubled. Then we encountered our usual Champions League hard luck when United and Berbatov 'scored' twice when clearly offside. Our task was extremely difficult to begin with but now, thanks to the inept officials, it was now almost impossible.
"You need a decision and to get two like that was a blow," said Celtic boss Strachan "But I am not going to sit here and scream about them. I know when I am well beaten and so does my team. We kept taking punches and two or three of my players must have been pleased, but there were two or three who wouldn't have been"
United's victory puts them on top of Group E with seven points and Celtic are now struggling with just one point from three games played. Gordon Strachan conceded that his team are now most likely to be fighting with Aalborg for a UEFA Cup place.
"It's a wake-up call for all our players and if you want to play at the top level then that's what you're aiming for." said the boss "I said to the players at the end of the game we can't be faulted for guts or determination but we're nowhere near as good as them passing the ball. We're still building in terms of the personnel we need to come here. I felt we had got over our real problems in the first 15 minutes then they got a goal from a set play. We tried to compete but that's one of the best performances I've ever come across."
Strachan himself acknowledged the gulf between the sides "I'm pleased it wasn't a rout. I'm still seeing a red tide coming towards me." he said "I'm just pleased that we showed enough guts to stay in there and it wasn't a rout and we got beat by seven. Roma got beat by seven here."
Looking towards the return game at Celtic Park in two weeks time he said "It's going to be very hard but we have to put on a performance to reward our fans and try and give Man United a game and show them we are better than that. We want to give our fans a good game at home but it will need to be some team to beat them."
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted with his team "I was really pleased with our performance. It was a really bad night for Celtic to get us and a good night for us."