Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his side lost to the better team as Barcelona won the Champions League final 2-0 in Rome last night.

United were bright in the initial exchanges but after Samuel Eto'o opened the scoring after 10 minutes, there was only one team in the game as Barca over-ran their opponents in midfield.

Lionel Messi made it 2-0 after 70 minutes and the Red Devils could muster nothing in response – but Ferguson believes his side will return stronger from the disappointment.

Ferguson said: "In fairness, we were beaten by the best team. We weren't at our best.

"The first goal was a killer, it was a bad start to the game. If you give them the ball they will keep it all night.

"But the best part of the game is that in adversity you always move forward quicker.

"We're all disappointed but we're a young team."

Ferguson added a second striker at half-time, with Carlos Tevez replacing the ineffective Anderson.

Reflecting on that decision, the Scot said: "I brought on Tevez simply because I took the gamble of playing two through (the middle).

"Ryan Giggs provided something and some parts of his game were good but what we needed was someone to be there all the time.

"But they defended quite well. We had plenty of time and we had some half-chances which we maybe should have done better with."