Fergie targets top spot
08 Nov 2007 - 07:24:51
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has challenged his players to win their Champions League group after Wednesday's 4-0 rout of Dynamo Kyiv confirmed their passage to the knockout stages.
United scored for times against the Ukrainian side for the second time in as many weeks as Gerard Pique, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were on the mark at Old Trafford.
Their fourth successive European win confirmed the Red Devils' progress to the last 16, but with two group games still to go - against Sporting Lisbon and AS Roma - Ferguson has warned that the job is not yet completed.
"If we beat Sporting Lisbon, we win the group and we want to try to make sure that happens," said the veteran Scot.
Meanwhile, Ferguson admitted the task of breaking down a defensively-minded Kyiv side had been a challenging one.
"When a side is in the position we were and they meet a team who are as defensive as that, it can become quite tedious," he continued.
"It can be an effort to try to break them down because, basically, they came with the intention not get to embarrassed.
"They adopted a man-marking system which made it very difficult for us.
"It was something new for the younger players because it's not an approach many teams take, but Kyiv did it quite efficiently.
"We needed the little break with the double deflection for the first goal and that opened the game up for us.
"The second goal was terrific and after half-time we looked comfortable and had far more attacking impetus."