David Beckham's face said it all as he triumphantly held aloft Diego Simeone's shirt. The Manchester United midfielder had finally laid to rest the ghost of France 98.

At the final whistle Beckham set the seal on his fabulous performance by swapping shirts with the man who admitted he deliberately got him sent off at the World Cup.

"It was just something I wanted to do and it was my idea to swap shirts," said Beckham, who had shaken hands with the Argentinian midfielder before the kick-off. Beckham insisted he had paid no attention to the pre-match hype surrounding his rematch with Simeone. "There were things said before the game, but I was just focused on my own game and the way I wanted to play. I was not looking to anything else."

Beckham brought a huge cheer from the Old Trafford faithful when he made a crunching tackle on Simeone early on and he said: "To be honest I didn't even realise that it was Simeone who was going for it. I just went in to win the ball."

Simeone praised Beckham and he felt the United fans had let him off lightly. "Beckham's a good lad," he said. "I thought the fans would boo me a lot more and I was actually quite surprised that there was so little noise for me."

United manager Alex Ferguson was delighted with Beckham: "We had a lot of good performers, and David Beckham was absolutely outstanding.

"No one got near Beckham tonight. He posed questions for them all night and in that form, he is the best crosser of a ball in Europe, especially if he can make goals as regularly as that."

Ferguson insisted that his most creative midfielder will be staying in a wide role, despite most experts' view that his best position is in the middle of midfield.

"He's an outstanding central midfielder, but until we get somebody else who can cross as good as that, he can stay there," said Ferguson who also singled out Peter Schmeichel's performance.

Denis Irwin was happy with the margin of the win. "The important thing was not just to win but to do it in a way that gives us a real chance of surviving the return game," he said.

He singled out Jaap Stam for praise. "I thought we were always in control at the back and Jaap's performance was something else. Playing alongside him made the job pretty straightforward for the rest of us. "I was disappointed to pick up a card, but unfortunately these things happen in the heat of the moment. Now I must be extra careful if I'm playing in the second game."