Ferguson praises Ronaldo despite penalty miss

By Simon Baskett

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson praised Cristiano Ronaldo's performance in the 0-0 draw with Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday despite his failure to convert an early penalty.

"Cristiano Ronaldo was a bit unlucky with the penalty," said the Scot. "Maybe it came too early in the first minute of the match. He leant back a little bit ... disappointing. Nevertheless, he was fantastic tonight."

The Portugal winger sent his spot kick high and wide at the Nou Camp after which Barca dominated without managing to take advantage. Ferguson said United have a strong chance of winning the return on Tuesday to reach next month's final.

"With our record at Old Trafford, with the crowd behind us then I think we have a good chance of going through," he told a news conference.

Ferguson was particularly pleased his side kept a clean sheet given that influential centre back Nemanja Vidic had to pull out of the game because of a stomach infection.

"I think it was professional. We sealed off the areas teams don't normally do against Barcelona.

PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE

"They didn't make a lot of chances, although they had a lot of play on the edge of our box. Our defending was very good. In that respect it was a professional performance.