Dejected United leave Rome in ruins | Night to remember for Barcelona | Ronaldo and Co lose their way | Debate: Did Ferguson get his tactics wrong? | How Barcelona rated | How United rated | How the action unfolded | Rooney: we lost to best team | Henry reaps reward with new friends | Simon Barnes | Patrick Barclay | Giles Smith | Tony Cascarino | Key moments | Graphic: errors cost United dear

Sir Alex Ferguson conceded that Manchester United performed poorly last night after his dream of becoming the first manager to retain the Champions League perished at the hands of an outstanding Barcelona team who made history of their own.

Goals in each half, from Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi, were enough to give Pep Guardiola’s side a 2-0 victory that their performance merited, making them the first Spanish club to complete a treble of league, domestic cup and European Cup.

However, while Ferguson had the good grace to acknowledge that Barcelona deserved to win, he is likely to be infuriated to learn that his tactics were criticised by Cristiano Ronaldo. “We only had ten minutes [on top] and then we never found ourselves again,” the United forward said. “We were not well, the tactics were not good and everything went wrong.”

Much will be made of Ferguson’s selection, which backfired as United were overrun in midfield, although the Scot defended his decision to deploy Ryan Giggs behind Ronaldo up front and leave Michael Carrick with just Anderson for company in central midfield. “We recognised the strengths of Barcelona with three midfield players,” Ferguson said. “We tried to get Ryan to play towards the front and drop into midfield. He is better at that because he is a natural midfielder, unlike Carlos [Tévez].

“We have done well to get to the final, but we had to win it to change the pattern on teams retaining it. With the players we have we expected to do better, but we could not recover from losing the first goal.”

Without naming names, the United manager was candid about his dissatisfaction with his team’s defending. Eto’o beat Edwin van der Sar at his near post in the tenth minute and Messi was allowed a free header to seal victory 20 minutes from time.

“There is a disappointment in the performance,” Ferguson said. “Some individuals will feel that themselves. Our best performances this season have been when we’ve defended well, but our defending tonight was shoddy. But credit where credit is due. We were well beaten. The better team won and there’s nothing we can do about it now.

“Tonight the disappointment was the use of the ball when we had possession. Normally we are better at that. Maybe we had an off-night. You hope they [Barcelona] make mistakes, but when we did get the ball we didn’t do enough with it.”

Ferguson reacted angrily to questions about his future at the end of a season in which United have become the first English club to win three successive league championships on two occasions. “I don’t understand that question,” he said. “How long have you known me? I don’t like you asking that question. It’s a stupid bloody question.”