For a man who had just lost the chance to play in a Champions Cup final through a second yellow card, Roy Keane was putting on a brave and sporting face. Rather than ruin the celebrations with recrimination, Keane told us of his pride at having seen United make it to the final, adding:

"It's been a long time, but on the night we were brilliant and I think we deserved to go through. Even when we were two-nil down, I still thought we would get goals and so it proved.

"As for the booking, it's just one of those things. Obviously, I knew before the game that a booking would rule me out of the final, but I cannot do anything about it now. I've said before I'm not going to tiptoe through matches. "Of course, it's frustrating, I'm not going to lie . . . but I'm not going to ponder on it too much because we're in the final and it's time for everyone to enjoy tonight's result."

Did he feel this was the best performance ever from his United side?

"That's for others to judge, but to come to Juventus, with the quality of players they have, and give them a two-goal start, well, I think everyone deserves a bit of credit. "This is an important result, tonight, but the importance of it is if we go on and win the final in Barcelona. You get nothing for winning semi-finals."

While Keane was sporting and dignified at a moment when he could have been forgiven for giving vent to anger and frustration, his boss, United manager Alex Ferguson, made no secret of his satisfaction. Hugs, embraces, slaps on the back and "Well done, Alex" were the order of the night when the United manager came out to talk to reporters.

"To come from two down and win here 3-2 against Juventus, who have been the best European team of the last decade, well it tells you something about the quality and courage of my team.

"It was a fair and professional match, but in that context I was sorry for my two players, Keane and Scholes, getting those yellow cards that put them out of the final.

"I thought we'd shot ourselves in the foot after we conceded those early goals, but at least tonight we had the composure to relax after that and express ourselves. Once we got the first goal, they became very nervous.

"Even when the score was 2-2, we didn't play like a team that was hanging on to anything, we were still trying to score. We hit the post twice, we had good counterattacking play in the second half and we created plenty of chances. Put it this way, it was a very good team performance."

Which probably passes as the understatement of the season. Asked how he had felt throughout the long, hard second half, Ferguson replied that he had been relatively unworried.

"I was quite relaxed about it all, to be honest with you. I thought we were the better team and when you're the better team, you always feel you have a chance. But, I did feel we had to get a third goal to kill it."

Perhaps Ferguson's best reply of the night, however, came when he was asked if this was the best moment in his career.

"Not yet, that'll come in the final in Barcelona."