No excuses from Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United out of Europa League
JOY AND DESPAIR: Athletic Bilbao's Muniain celebrates as Manchester United's Wayne Rooney contemplates defeat Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had no complaints after his side were dumped out of the Europa League by Athletic Bilbao.
United never looked like overturning their 3-2 deficit from last week's first leg at Old Trafford and fell further behind to goals from Fernando Llorente and Oscar de Marcos in each half.
Wayne Rooney pulled a late goal back but by that time Ferguson had already removed Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs with an eye to this weekend's Barclays Premier League match at Wolves.
"We can't complain. In the first half we gave away a real soft goal. That was the last thing we wanted," he told Channel Five.
"At the start of the second half they did really well could have scored two or three more goals.
"We did better later on but nowhere near enough to win."
United are top of the Premier League and Ferguson admitted he made his three substitutes with Sunday's trip to Wolves in mind.
"We decided to take Rio and Michael and eventually Ryan off because we were thinking of Sunday," said Ferguson, who denied their exit would boost their league hopes.
"It's not a sense of relief (to go out) because there are still 10 games to play in the league," he said.
"There is still a lot to do. I think the key thing is we have to make sure we win on Sunday."
Ahtletic Bilbao 2 Manchester United 1 (Athletic win 5-3 on aggregate)
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United never looked like overturning their 3-2 deficit from last week's first leg at Old Trafford and fell further behind to goals from Fernando Llorente and Oscar de Marcos in each half.
Wayne Rooney pulled a late goal back but by that time Ferguson had already removed Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs with an eye to this weekend's Barclays Premier League match at Wolves.
"We can't complain. In the first half we gave away a real soft goal. That was the last thing we wanted," he told Channel Five.
"At the start of the second half they did really well could have scored two or three more goals.
"We did better later on but nowhere near enough to win."
United are top of the Premier League and Ferguson admitted he made his three substitutes with Sunday's trip to Wolves in mind.
"We decided to take Rio and Michael and eventually Ryan off because we were thinking of Sunday," said Ferguson, who denied their exit would boost their league hopes.
"It's not a sense of relief (to go out) because there are still 10 games to play in the league," he said.
"There is still a lot to do. I think the key thing is we have to make sure we win on Sunday."
Ahtletic Bilbao 2 Manchester United 1 (Athletic win 5-3 on aggregate)
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