Louis van Gaal is in no doubt Bayern Munich deserved their 2-1 Champions League quarter-final first-leg win over Manchester United.
Goals from Franck Ribery’s deflected free-kick and Ivica Olic’s cancelled out Wayne Rooney’s opener to give the German outfit a fighting chance of reaching the semi-finals.
“[Conceding so early] was incredible, but it happens,” said Van Gaal. “Then it was incredible how we played against such a big European team. We were already superior in the first half, but in the second period we tried everything. We gave our all, had a positive approach and I am very proud of my players.
“We really deserved this win. The goal against us was a shock. We took ten minutes to recover, then we were the better side. The equaliser with a deflected free-kick was definitely lucky. But then Olic excelled with the winner. We have a chance to succeed in Manchester as we are always capable of scoring a goal away from home.
“I think that Man United has a great chance because they have scored a goal away from home. I had not accounted for that; I wanted a 0-0 or a 1-0 and 2-1 is not the best result. But we have always scored at least a goal in the Champions League.
“Against Haifa we scored three, against Bordeaux one, against Juventus four and against Fiorentina two. That is a lot of goals away from home so we can have a bit of faith.