Carrick: We always believed

15/04/2009 23:00, Report by Steve Bartram

Michael Carrick insists United's players always held an unwavering confidence that Porto could be overcome, despite the Portuguese champions' away-goals advantage and their proud home record.

With two Old Trafford strikes safely in the bank and their much-heralded unbeaten record against British opposition in the Stadio do Dragao, Porto were confident of dumping the reigning European champions out of the competition on Wednesday night.

Cristiano Ronaldo's wonderful early goal, allied to a mature, disciplined team display sent the Reds through to a semi-final clash with Arsenal, and Carrick was delighted by United's timely return to form.

"Obviously it's a tough place to come and get a result, but we knew it was in our hands," the midfielder told MUTV. "We really fancied ourselves to come and score here, and defend right. It was a good team performance all round and we're delighted to go through.

"We started the game very well and looked good, and to get the goal was a big bonus. From then I thought we were in control. They came at us, which you'd expect, but we defended very well, even though it was still on a knife-edge.

"From going through, all of a sudden you can be going out. We were well aware of that and knew we had to defend right to the final whistle, and I thought we did that very well."