Giggs: We're still on course

Ryan Giggs says United are firmly on course for qualification to the last 16 despite frustration at not making the most of chances to win at Celtic Park.

United had almost 25 attempts at goal against Gordon Strachan's men, but it took until the 21st opportunity for Giggs to nod his header past Artur Boruc, who had failed to hold Cristiano Ronaldo’s swerving drive.

Dimitar Berbatov missed a golden opportunity to win it right at the death, but he turned his close-range shot wide of the goal. A chance missed, and a metaphor for the game itself, but Giggs wasn't too disheartened.

“With so little time to go and being 1-0 down we’d have settled for a draw,” admitted Ryan. “But the way we played and the tempo of our game in the second half, I think deserved a win. We came here to win, but we’ll go into the last two games knowing that we can qualify.”

The United skipper admitted the Reds weren't happy with the first-half display, but he was pleased with the attitude in the second half in trying to break down a stubborn Celtic rearguard.

“We were disappointed with our first-half performance,” Giggs told Sky Sports. “We didn’t keep the ball well enough. It came up to the front men and wasn’t sticking there. It wasn’t a really bad performance in the first half, we just knew that we could do better.

“But we came out in the second half and kept Celtic pinned back. We knew the chances would come, it was just a case of taking them. Celtic made it hard for us, they got men behind the ball. We knew that we just had to keep creating chances, whether it was from crosses, one-twos on the edge of the box, or just keeping the tempo going. That’s what we did.”

The pressure paid off when Giggs headed United level with little more than five minutes remaining. The Welshman says it is always worth anticipating the goalkeeper spilling one of Ronaldo’s rockets. “His shots are always worth following up,” Giggs added. “It moved all over the place, which is difficult for the goalkeeper to deal with and I just gambled on it. It fell to me and I headed it in.”

The Reds are top of Group E, but level on points with second-placed Villarreal, who drew 2-2 with Aalborg. United travel to Spain later this month in a match that will all but decide who goes through as group winners.