Manchester United and Manchester City both bowed out of the Europa League at the Round of 16 stage on Thursday, as Athletic Bilbao and Sporting Lisbon respectively celebrated big wins.
The Red Devils never looked likely of turning around their 3-2 home deficit to Bilbao, who went two goals up in the second leg after strikes from Fernando Llorente and Oscar de Marcos before Wayne Rooney grabbed a consolation.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson fumed with his side’s defence, particularly for Llorente’s opening goal, a volley from a long ball forward. He said: “The disappointment for me is losing such a soft goal. It was a bad one for an English team to lose a goal like that, a long ball.
“At the start of the second half they could have scored two or three goals, they had us on the back foot for most of those first 20 minutes.
“I don’t think we can complain about the result. I think that, in the second half in particular, Bilbao were the better team.”
Meanwhile, City also exited Europe despite winning 3-2 against Sporting Lisbon on Thursday. City went down on away goals, despite a 3-3 aggregate draw.
The Sky Blues had trailed 2-0, before fighting back with Sergio Aguero scoring twice and earning his side a penalty, but it was all too late, despite the fact goalkeeper Joe Hart almost won it at the death when he drifted forward.
City boss Roberto Mancini said: “In the first half we didn’t play, but I am the manager and it’s not the players’ fault, but mine - I probably made a mistake. The players did everything, and fought on the pitch. When a manager doesn’t prepare well for the game, this happens.
“When I lose a game I think about why I lost and think about where I made mistakes. I understand we have big players but in football every game is difficult, and in the Europa League and Champions League it is more difficult, because every team plays to win.
“Sometimes we make mistakes, but the manager is the person who always prepares the game, and I probably made some mistakes for these two games.”
Elsewhere, German pair Hannover 96 and Schalke both went through after scoring four goals on home turf knocking out Standard Liege and Twente respectively.
Spanish duo Atletico Madrid and Valencia also both progressed with comfortable victories over Besiktas and PSV Eindhoven respectively.
Ukraine’s Metalist Kharkiv edged past Olympiakos on away goals thanks to two dramatic late strikes, while AZ Alkmaar ended Italian participation in the tournament with a 3-2 aggregate win over Udinese.