Marcello Lippi was full of praise for Manchester United after last night’s 3-0 home defeat to Manchester United,but the Juventus coach was keen to point out that his team were still suffering the debilitating effects of the flu bug that swept through the club last week.

“I don’t want this to sound like an excuse but my impression is that tonight we paid for everything that has happened in the last 15 days, we paid physically. We did well in Manchester and again against Como but we were made to pay for those games,” said the Juventus coach.

“We were below par and every little incident in the game went against us. We hit the woodwork, (Gianluca) Zambrotta slipped for the first goal and then we made a mistake in midfield for the second goal. After that (Igor) Tudor made an error with the third goal for them,” added Lippi.

“Maybe it was an error on my part to call some players back into the team before they were ready, maybe I did it too soon,” said Lippi.

“They are a world class team, who can create all sorts of problems for you and all kinds of situations – they have great quality.

“You need to be able to give a lot against them and we weren’t able to do that. We were concentrated and focused but we didn’t have enough in us and absolutely nothing went our way,” said Lippi.

Victorious United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, was understandably delighted with his team’s performance.

“It was a fantastic performance by us and I am delighted we have made it through. I had to make some changes to the side with one or two lads carrying injuries and the (League) Cup final coming up on Sunday,” said the United manager.

Of two-goal hero Ryan Giggs, Ferrguson was effusive in his praise.

“Football is a funny old game you know,’ noted Ferguson. ‘I didn’t want to use Giggs tonight but then I had to put him on as Forl n got injured. European nights have never been a problem for Ryan. He has been excellent on many occassions and tonight was one of them.”