When it came to the biggest game of his Manchester United tenure, there was only one person for Erik ten Hag to call on for advice.
Sir Alex Ferguson was Ten Hag's dining partner at a Cheshire restaurant on Tuesday night, 48 hours before Thursday night's Europa League play-off decider against Barcelona. If Ten Hag was looking for pointers on how to overcome the Spanish giants at Old Trafford, he need have looked no further than United's most decorated former manager.
Ferguson, 81, faced Barca nine times, winning two games and drawing four, with two of his three defeats coming in Champions League finals by Pep Guardiola's formidable former side. Yet the two wins were memorable - the 1991 Cup Winners' Cup final and the 2008 Champions League semi-final, en route to lifting the famous trophy in Moscow.
