| | MANCHESTER, England -- Croatia Zagreb manager Ossie Ardiles won the tactical battle at Old Trafford as his efficient team held holders Manchester United to a 0-0 Group D draw in the opening round of Champions League group phase on Tuesday.
The little Argentine, who once scored a winning F.A. Cup goal at Old Trafford against United when he was at Tottenham Hotspur in the early 1980s, again enjoyed a successful night there even if his side did not win this time.
|  | | Despite colliding with teammate Josip Simic, 'keeper Drazen Ladic, right, punches the ball away from United's Andy Cole. |
He changed his teams' regular system of two strikers to flood the midfield, denying United the space to play their quick-paced inventive game.
Despite having to survive one or two scares -- when Dwight Yorke hit the bar and 'keeper Drazen Ladic saved from Teddy Sheringham in injury time -- the Croats deservedly held out for the draw.
Ardiles admitted: "To have a chance here you have to try and control the midfield and this is what we set out to do. Now I'm proud of my boys.
"They came here and passed the ball and fought when they had to fight. It was also nice for a change for me to get the tactics right," he joked.
United manager Alex Ferguson praised Ardiles for devising a game plan to halt United's array of attacking talents, and hinted he expects future European opponents to follow a similar pattern when travelling to Old Trafford.
Said Ferguson: "I'm pretty satisfied with the performance although it was a disappointing result. You have to give credit to the Croatians. They made it difficult to play through the midfield and maybe a lot of teams will do that this season.
"We were a little surprised by their tactics as we expected them to play two up front."
Ferguson added: "You need 10 points to qualify. That's one and we now need nine more from the other games."
United, lacking in all 11 players either injured or ineligible, struggled to find the pace or rhythm needed to break down the solid Zagreb resistance, and only when the visitors tired in the closing stages did they look like scoring.
Yorke outfoxed Mario Tokic on the left before sending in a curling shot that glanced off the bar with eight minutes left, and Ladic produced a brilliant save with his feet to deny substitute Sheringham when the ball broke in the box at the death.
Earlier Andy Cole had a good chance after finally finding space behind the Zagreb defense in the 65th minute, but Ladic again saved with his feet.
From the resulting corner United defender Jaap Stam headed powerfully wide with the goal at his mercy.
In a disappointing game, where the attacking talents of Ryan Giggs and David Beckham were rarely seen, Zagreb could have claimed a famous victory with Igor Biscan cleverly drifting in to good positions and using the ball with good effect.
But it was the midfielder who wasted the visitor's best chance in the 20th minute when he shot over the bar from the edge of the box after Daniel Saric beat Jaap Stam for pace and pulled the ball back into his path. | |
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