Manchester United v Portsmouth
The FA Community Shield, sponsored by McDonald's 2008
3pm, Sunday 10 August 2008
Wembley Stadium
Live on Setanta, highlights on ITV
While most managers would be pleased with a Champions League and Premier League double, Sir Alex Ferguson is still thinking of the one that got away last season.
With Portsmouth the opponents as FA Cup winners in Sunday's FA Community Shield, Ferguson believes that had United overcome Harry Redknapp's South coast outfit at Old Trafford in the Sixth Round they could have gone on to repeat their treble triumph of 1999.
In an exclusive interview for the match programme, Ferguson said: "I think it’s interesting that if we had won that game against Portsmouth, would we have won the treble again? I’ve always said since '99 it’s almost impossible to do.
"You can’t take these things for granted but given the fact that they then played West Bromwich Albion in the Semi-Final, it gave them an outstanding chance of winning The FA Cup.
"If we had reached that stage, it would have been interesting which team I would have picked, because we had a full squad at that time going into the last few weeks of the season.
"The FA Cup Final falls four days before the Champions League final, as it did in 1999 when we played Newcastle United before Bayern Munich and I rested four players against Newcastle.
"So if we had reached The Final this year, I would probably have rested half a dozen, simply because our priority would have been to win the European Cup final as it was in 1999. But we were disappointed at losing the game against Portsmouth, because that was a match that we should have really won."
That match aside, Ferguson is immensely proud to have lifted a second European Cup and admits that the feeling around the team was different in Moscow to the night he lifted the trophy the first time in Barcelona nine years ago.
"Last year was a fantastic season and it’s hard to put into words," Ferguson explained.
"I think when we won the European Cup last time, there was a bit of an air of ‘we can’t believe this’ but when you win it a second time, it was confirming our position in the game over a longer period.
"There was nine years between us winning it this year and in 1999 and as Ryan Giggs pointed out to all the players at the celebrations after the game, he had to wait nine years for it a second time and he didn’t want the rest of the players to wait nine years for it.
"That was a fantastic statement to make and it’s hard to imagine that we’ll have to wait another nine years to win the European Cup so in a way the achievement is enormous because it’s not an easy cup to win."
