Rio upbeat despite final defeat

Rio Ferdinand insists Manchester United can look back on a good season despite another crushing Champions League final disappointment.

For the second time in three years, United could find no answer to Barcelona.

Wayne Rooney's first-half equaliser might have given Sir Alex Ferguson's men some hope of recording a shock victory at Wembley on Saturday night.

However, once Lionel Messi had scored his first goal on English soil, there was no way back for the Premier League champions, who were condemned to a 3-1 defeat by David Villa's sweet curling effort.

"We have had a fantastic season this year," said Ferdinand.

"We are disappointed and this defeat leaves a bad taste in the mouth going into the summer but when you sit back and reflect on things we have had a top season.

"We reached the Champions League final again. We won the league. We reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup. It has not been a bad season."

However, raising spirits is going to be incredibly hard for Ferguson, knowing his team appear to have hit a brick wall in the brilliant Catalans, who confirmed their status as one of the best teams ever to have played the game.

"You have to give credit where it is due," said Ferdinand.

"They were the better team today and they probably deserved to win. I am just really disappointed if I am honest."

United did play better than their performance in Rome.

The problem was Barcelona have improved just as much.

"You don't go into any final being satisfied to be second best," said Ferdinand.

"Today we didn't get to pick up the trophy and they did.

"At 1-0 down I still thought we had a good chance to get back into the game.

"We got back on level terms but then conceded a bad goal and the third killed it off.

"Regardless of what happened two years ago, we didn't really do as well as we should have done.

"They are a good side. They know exactly what their jobs are and they work well as a team and individuals. You have to try and combat that.

"We had a good game plan. Maybe we didn't implement it as well as we could have."