Central Park
Wayne Rooney scored four of United’s seven goals, but Sir Alex says the man most responsible for crippling AC Milan over two legs was Ji-sung Park.
In both matches, Park was tasked with man-marking playmaker Andrea Pirlo, a job the South Korean carried out to perfection. With no time or space on the ball, Pirlo was unable to pull the strings and feed Milan’s forwards with the ball.
“Park was the key to our game,” Sir Alex told MUTV. “We can talk about Rooney – and he was great – but Park’s discipline, intelligence and sacrifice won us the match tactically. Pirlo is such an important player for them.”
Club captain Gary Neville, who was barely troubled by Brazilian star Ronaldinho, also acknowledged the role Park played in Wednesday night’s win.
“I don’t know if it was easy out there [against Ronaldinho], but you have to look at the work Ji-sung Park did, stopping the forwards getting the service. A player like Ronaldinho is difficult to mark if he gets good service but I was able to get close to him.”
Neville said the 7-2 aggregate win over Milan was “a great scoreline” but urged caution as United move into the Champions League quarter-finals.
“That result gives us confidence,” he said. “We’ve done well in the European Cup in the last two seasons and now we’re in the quarter-finals again. But we know in this competition that anything can happen.
“There are a lot of good teams left in the competition. Hopefully the draw [made on Friday 19 March] will be kind to us.”