United’s Champions League exit ‘criminal’, says Ferdinand

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand feels that Manchester United did not deserve a place in the Champions League knock out stage.

Erik ten Hag's side needed to beat Bayern Munich at Old Trafford and hope Copenhagen drew with Galatasaray in the other game to avoid a group-stage exit - but their fate was sealed by Kingsley Coman's second half strike that earned the German champions a 1-0 victory.

"Very disappointing to say the least," Ferdinand said on TNT Sports. "You look at that group when it came out, you would have expected Manchester United to go through, but to score three goals in each of your away games and come away with the points they did was criminal."

Ferdinand also did not like the open nature of the game United played.

"When you score that many goals in the group stages, I think they've scored 12 and conceded 15 goals, that's the problem there.

"Basketball football – you attack, we attack and see who comes out on top.

"You get what you deserve if you're not clinical. If you can't close matches out, you don't deserve to progress to the knockout stages."

Former United midfielder Paul Scholes argued that the team did not do enough to create chances for the forwards while Bayern could have scored more goals against the United defence.

"They could never really find that cutting edge. I don't think [Rasmus] Hojlund had a chance created for him and that's where United came unstuck.

"I think Bayern had another three or four gears to go up and if they really fancied it tonight they would have done," Scholes said.