Real shock at Beckham axe

"We were surprised he didn't start," said his old England team- mate McManaman. "Going into the match, we sat down in the hotel and the team and the manager included Becks in our plans.

"He came on and made an impact. He was bound to because in a game like this, his ability from free-kicks and corners is second to none."

When Beckham replaced Juan Sebastian Veron after 63 minutes with the tie all but lost, he put United level at 3-3 with a superb dead-ball strike from 25 yards before bundling home an 84th-minute winner.

Like the 67,000 crowd, the Real players were surprised to learn that Ferguson had plumped for Veron in midfield after the Argentinian had been out of action with a knee injury for seven weeks. But Ferguson reiterated that he had no regrets about selecting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on the right flank instead of Beckham.

"Ole had been in fantastic form in that position," he said. "The temptation is to make him a substitute as you know that he can come on and change games, but only so many times can you hit a guy over the head like that by leaving him out. So I couldn't leave him out, even though David Beckham is a great player too."

And when asked about all the talk of Beckham coming to join him in Real Madrid's glittering cast, McManaman shrugged that he believed it was just a rumour which had sprung up only because they had drawn United in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, United's despondent players vowed to bounce back at Tottenham on Sunday with the Premiership title still up for grabs. "There's no doubt in my mind that with the character of the players we've got, we can go and win there," said Roy Keane.