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Sir Alex Ferguson was last night cursing Manchester United's misfortune after seeing his side crash out of the Champions League at the hands of Porto.
The English champions missed out on a place in what would have been their eighth consecutive quarter-final after conceding a late equaliser at Old Trafford.
The Portuguese champions and last season's UEFA Cup winners earned a 1-1 draw on the night to go through to the last 16 with an aggregate score of 3-2.
Ferguson admitted he was shocked by the nature of his side's late exit: "You get shocked in life and I suppose you couldn't see that one coming," he said. "I thought that defensively we were absolutely brilliant, they had a lot of possession of the ball but I felt that we were in complete control.
"It wasn't a great Manchester United performance but it was laced with a lot of good play and I think we deserved to win the match."
Porto's winning goal came from Benni McCarthy's free-kick which was parried straight into the path of Francisco Costinha by goalkeeper Tim Howard.
Ferguson added: "We have had problems defensively but we did really well in that area tonight, but we have not reacted to the rebound and that's the first thing you have to do as a defender when the ball is going towards your goalkeeper."
Paul Scholes had a first-half goal ruled out for offside even though television replays clearly proved otherwise, with three Porto defenders playing him on.
"To be honest I couldn't believe it," Sir Alex stated. "You can understand it maybe if there's one defender and the linesman doesn't see it but when there are three playing him onside you cannot understand it.
"That would have put us into a very, very comfortable position at 2-0 up, but then that's football."
Despite the defeat, Ferguson remained upbeat about his team's chances of winning some silverware this season. They may be trailing table toppers Arsenal by nine points in the Barclaycard Premiership, but the United boss is confident his players will be fighting hard to overcome their rivals in both the league and the FA Cup.
"Obviously we are out of the European Cup which is disappointing having done so well and qualified for Europe so often. We have to ensure European football for next year but there's no reason to give up on the league - that has been proved tonight and I don't see how anyone could have seen what happened in the last minute.
"We are in the semi-final of the FA Cup and that will not be an easy game for either side."
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