By Ian Boydon
December 8 2005

A furious Sir Alex Ferguson is in disbelief after his Manchester United side were dumped out of Europe in Lisbon. The Scotsman signalled out the team's injury problems and poor home form as United miss out on qualification for the knock-out stages for the first time in 11 years.

Last night Sir Alex Ferguson admitted he was in shock after Manchester United were dumped out of all European competition this season. Speaking after his side's 2-1 defeat to Lisbon's Benfica, Ferguson described it, unsurprisingly, as a "low moment".

Ferguson admitted that it was United's inability to keep possession which cost them the tie; "giving the ball away is a cardinal sin". However the Scot believed that it was United's poor performance in earlier group matches which are to blame for the club's early European exit.
"Our home form let us down" he argued, "we have depended on our home form" (in the past); Sir Alex blamed the loss of experienced players, due to injury, earlier in the campaign for the side's poor performance in this year's competition.