Paul Scholes has hit back at suggestions Manchester United underachieved in Europe under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Despite winning 13 Premier League titles, the Red Devils often fell short in Europe, and though they did win the UEFA Champions League on two occasions, they lost three semi-finals to Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Milan and were runners-up to Barcelona twice.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football, Scholes suggested fans don't appreciate the level of competition in the 1990s and 2000s.
"People say we should've won the UEFA Champions League a lot more but we played against some unbelievable teams," said Scholes. "You think about that Juventus team, the Real Madrid Galacticos, the Milan team [with] Kaka, [Clarence] Seedorf, the Barcelona team, Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta and [Sergio] Busquets, they absolutely killed us."
United had to adapt to their more accomplished and experienced European rivals, with Ferguson making more frequent tactical tweaks for continental competition.
"We were a 4-4-2 team who tried to score more goals than anybody else and at times that worked, but Juventus taught us you've got to be a bit more pragmatic about it, when we were playing one centre forward, some games of course you can get away with two up front, but away from home we were getting killed in midfield."
Nicky Butt, who made 69 UEFA Champions League appearances for the Red Devils, added: "I always go back to Juventus because they were like our teachers. They taught us a massive lesson for three years.
"You couldn't run around all over the shop because they'd pass you to death and you'd be knackered, you couldn't tackle someone because the referee would book you. It took us five or six years to get to that level.
"People forget how good Deportivo La Coruna were, they battered us. We played them for a couple of years; we were winning league after league after league, and every time we went over there they'd play with us."
