Manchester United demolished Panathinaikos at Old Trafford on Tuesday night but despite neither of their strikers finding the net, boss Alex Ferguson was delighted with their contribution.
Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy led the United attack but took a back seat in the scoring stakes as five different United players scored the goals as they romped to a 5-0 victory over the Greek side in their first game of the Champions League group stage
But despite not grabbing any goals, both forwards played a major part in destroying the Panathinaikos defence, with Giggs' set pieces and van Nistelrooy's deft lay-offs causing all sorts of problems for the visitors.
And Ferguson had nothing but praise for the duo: "When people look at the result and see Ruud hasn't scored, they will probably think he wasn't playing," he said.
"But his overall contribution to this win was absolutely fantastic.
"As a striker, if you don't score, you have to do other things and, in that respect, Ruud showed himself to be a real footballer tonight. He likes to score but didn't let his head go down when he didn't."
"Ryan has been in the middle of the battle-scene for the last 10 years," Ferguson added.
"Other than the likes of Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, I don't think there is anyone else in the Premier League who can say that.
"When you consider what he has achieved and the fact he still keeps going, I think it is quite remarkable."
"The movement of the two front players was fantastic. They complimented each other really well, their movement was terrific and while Panathinaikos might have had a few nerves early on, we certainly capitalised on it."
United's next outing in the Champions League is in Stuttgart in a fortnight, followed by back-to-back games against Glasgow Rangers in the 'Battle of Britain'.
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