Ferguson hails Old Trafford's greatest European night

MANCHESTER, England, Apr 11 (Reuters) Manager Alex Ferguson hailed Old Trafford's greatest European night after watching Manchester United destroy AS Roma with a 7-1 victory which swept them into the Champions League semi-finals.

Yesterday's remarkable second-leg result, which earned an 8-3 aggregate success, gave United their biggest win in the Champions League and their most emphatic victory in Europe for 39 years.

''It was the greatest night in a European sense,'' said Ferguson, who has overseen more than 200 matches in European competition in two decades in charge.

''It was an unexpected scoreline but the quality of our game was so high that once we scored two or three you felt there was going to be something big,'' he told reporters.

''It was a special night. Hopefully it won't be a one-off but the quality and number of goals was very high so it's difficult to think you would get that again.'' Well-crafted goals by Michael Carrick, Alan Smith, his first at Old Trafford since December 2004, and Wayne Rooney inside 20 minutes effectively settled the tie.

''The early goal was difficult for Roma. That got them on the back foot and gave us the confidence to get at them and the speed of our play caused them a lot of problems after that,'' Ferguson said.

''It was a fantastic performance. There's no other description for it. The speed of play and penetration was absolutely superb.'' Cristiano Ronaldo scored either side of halftime to take his tally for the season to 20 while Carrick added a stunning sixth before Patrice Evra finished off the night's scoring.

TREBLE REPEAT The rout kept United on course for a possible repeat of their 1999 treble, despite losing to Portsmouth last Saturday which allowed Chelsea, possible opponents in the Champions League final in Athens on May 23, to close the gap at the top of the Premier League to three points.

''We have had a couple of bad results in the last week but all great teams get over those mishaps. Recovery is the thing and we recovered tonight,'' said Ferguson.

''We have shown that quality time and time again. That's the measure of a good team.'' Roma coach Luciano Spalletti praised United but said his team suffered through a lack of experience.

''We had a good first 10 minutes then they scored with their first attack,'' he said. ''We tried to get back in too quickly, we chased the goal but lost our balance as a team and almost fell apart.

''United were in fantastic shape, every shot they had from outside the box seemed to go in, and into the top corner.

''We probably had as many shots as them (each side had 22 efforts on goal) but things got in the way of ours or they weren't well struck.'' Spalletti dismissed suggestions Roma were too confident after their first-leg win.

''It was lack of experience, not over-confidence,'' he said.

''It would be bad, a real step back, if we had felt it would be easy. We have shown we can compete with United but I don't want to even think about the idea we might have been over-confident.

''The important thing now is to react to this. This is a further test for us and we need to show what we can do.'' Reuters DH VP0737