No excuses as real United fail to show

SO THERE is to be no historic all-English Champions League final.

And Alex Ferguson can have no complaints when he watches Liverpool take on AC Milan in Athens later this month.

His Manchester United side were out-thought, outplayed and soundly beaten by a Milan side consumed by thoughts of revenge against Liverpool for the events in Istanbul two years ago.

It was almost as if United, just when they needed it most, had left the Muse back in Manchester where they have been such a dynamic force this season.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a shocker. So did Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs.

United can carry one, sometimes two of their great orchestrators, but with none of their finest operating anywhere near their peak there was a predictability to their work. And that just does not get the job done at this level.

It was such a pity because there had been nothing cagey from Ferguson, no mind games this time. No feuding from the managers as we’d seen in the other semi-final.

“If we’re going to win we’ll have to do it our way,” Ferguson had proclaimed. “And if we lose we will lose our way.”

We all knew what he meant. The United way, ever since the Busby Babes, has been steeped in attacking, entertaining football, played without fear and with daring.

Ferguson has been the guardian of that tradition, which is why the fans in a rain-drenched San Siro stadium expected a night of unrelenting drama.

It never came. Mostly because this was not the free-flowing United on the cusp of lifting their ninth Premiership title.

They looked nervous. Too often they were sloppy in possession.

By contrast, Milan’s football was blistering, and when the first goal came after 11 minutes the source was no surprise — a Clarence Seedorf header into the path of Kaka whose left-foot shot rippled the net.

Much has been made of the comparison between Kaka and Ronaldo, but on the evidence of these two legs there is only one realistic candidate for the best player in the world.

Kaka was brilliant. Ronaldo was, well, ordinary. And sometimes less than that. Too swift to try his tricks, too easily brushed off the ball.

Much of that could be traced to the steel of Genarro Gattuso, a midfield enforcer in the mould of Roy McKay.

United’s comeback at Old Trafford last week had been sparked by Gattuso’s departure through injury. This time he was fit and determined to shackle United’s inventiveness, allowing the more prosaic members of Milan’s ageing side their freedom.

Suffice to say he did his job so well that for much of this match Milan goalkeeper Dida must have wished he had brought a newspaper to pass the time.

The same could not be said of Edwin van der Sar, who was exposed by a shaky defence, most crucially when Gabriel Heinze and Nemanja Vidic made such a hash of things that Seedorf capitalised to volley home a superb shot from the edge of the area.

True, United had been 2-0 down against Juventus back in Turin in 1999, the last time they won the Champions League.

But this night there was no Roy Keane. No driving force to lift them from their darkness. No conviction.

The Italians know how to see out a game in such circumstances. Not always prettily, but effectively.

And when Gilardino ran through a cavernous hole in United’s defence to dispatch the third it was no more than Milan deserved.

The treble chase is over. So is Ferguson’s dream of cementing his position as one of Europe’s great coaches with a second Champions Cup.

But no complaints. This was the night the real United failed to turn up.