Fergie won't back down on Bayern

Sir Alex Ferguson has refused to back down over his criticism of Bayern Munich's players and accused the media of being anti-Manchester United. Ferguson was irritated that his blunt comments about Bayern's conduct being "typically German" were allowed to obscure what he felt was a good performance from United.The Red Devils exited the Champions League despite a 3-2 win on Wednesday but Ferguson felt his players deserved praise for their efforts in establishing a three-goal lead and then trying to withstand a fierce Bayern bombardment after Rafael was sent-off.Instead, the attention fell on Ferguson's inflammatory comments, which will not bring action from UEFA, before the spotlight started to fall on where it had all gone wrong.Ferguson's relationship with the media has never been particularly close, and when quizzed about the reporting of his post-match comments, the Scot went onto the offensive."It is hard to understand the press," he said."Someone told me that coming back from the Champions League final in Rome last year they were all delighted on the press bus that we lost."They were absolutely pleased that we lost; the English press."The person who told me was disgusted. That is a fact. He had no reason to lie to me."Our performance on Wednesday was fantastic. At 3-0 it could have been 5-0. We were magnificent. Absolutely magnificent."But that gets lost just because people want a headline out of what I said about the Germans. That is disgusting because the players deserved some praise."Ferguson felt he was not helped by having to do a TV interview straight after the game, when he blurted out his comment.By the time he sat down for his main post-match analysis, some 45 minutes later, he had calmed down slightly, even if the sentiment remained ahead of Sunday's now must-win Premier League encounter with Blackburn."The Germans let themselves down in the way they behaved in getting the boy sent off," he said."If they don't recognise that there is nothing I can do about it. But it was totally unfair."They bullied the referee into it. He is a young referee and he succumbed to that pressure because he wasn't going to send the boy off."When informed of Ferguson's comments on Wednesday, Bayern coach Louis van Gaal challenged the British version of fair play, and insisted his team had done no wrong.Ferguson maintains they did, particularly Franck Ribery, the player who was yanked back by Rafael to bring the fateful second yellow card."I know Van Gaal spoke about the fairness of English football and he was right," said Ferguson. "It (the English league) is one of the fairest in the world."But we weren't talking about English fairness."He (Rafael) has barely touched him. Ribery's done more to him."The issue was how the Germans reacted."They knew the boy was on a yellow card. They surrounded the referee and they are waving their hands with imaginary cards."There was an edict to referees that anyone showing an imaginary card should be booked."Well, there were six that should have been booked if you go along those lines."

Source: Team_Talk