Ferguson has no complaints at United’s exit from Europe

United never looked like overturning their 3-2 deficit from last week’s first leg at Old Trafford and fell further behind to goals from Fernando Llorente and Oscar de Marcos in each half.

Wayne Rooney pulled a late goal back but by that time Ferguson had already removed Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs with an eye to this weekend’s Barclays Premier League match at Wolves.

“We can’t complain. In the first half we gave away a real soft goal. That was the last thing we wanted,” he said. “At the start of the second half they did really well could have scored two or three more goals.

“We did better later on but nowhere near enough to win.”

United are top of the Premier League and Ferguson admitted he made his three substitutes with Sunday’s trip to Wolves in mind.

“We decided to take Rio and Michael and eventually Ryan off because we were thinking of Sunday,” said Ferguson, who denied their exit would boost their league hopes.

“It’s not a sense of relief (to go out) because there are still 10 games to play in the league,” he said. “There is still a lot to do. I think the key thing is we have to make sure we win on Sunday.”

Manchester City’s storming second-half fightback at the Etihad Stadium proved all in vain as they were knocked out on the away goals rule by Sporting Lisbon after a 3-3 aggregate finish.

The visitors looked set to coast into the last eight as early strikes from Matias Fernandez and Ricky van Wolfswinkel sent them 2-0 up at the break, giving them a 3-0 overall lead.

But City blasted back to win 3-2, with two goals from Sergio Aguero sandwiching a Mario Balotelli penalty. Keeper Joe Hart came close to heading a dramatic injury-time clincher but Roberto Mancini’s men bowed out.

Dutch Eredivisie leaders AZ survived the third minute sending-off of Nick Viergever as they clung on for a 2-1 defeat at Udinese which was enough to send them through 3-2 on aggregate.

Viergever’s early dismissal threw AZ into chaos and things looked bleak when two goals from Antonio Di Natale drew the hosts level on aggregate within the opening 15 minutes.

But Udinese failed to make the most of their chances and AZ went back in front through a 31st minute strike from Erik Falkenburg, before managing to hold on for a last eight place.

Hannover left no room for doubt with a crushing 4-0 second leg win over Standard Liege in Germany to send them through to the quarter-finals 6-2 on aggregate.

Mohammed Abdellaoue opened the scoring on four minutes before two own goals from Brazilian Kanu either side of the break. Sergio Pinto added a fourth in stoppage time after Standard had Serge Gakpe sent off.

Former winners Valencia moved through 5-3 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw at PSV. Adil Rami opened the scoring for Valencia on 47 before Ola Toivonen equalised. Goalscorer Rami was sent off in injury time.

Ukrainians Metalist Kharkiv staged a fine late comeback to nudge out Olympiacos with a 2-1 win in Greece enough to see them through on the away goals rule after a 2-2 aggregate result.

A Klaas Jan Huntelaar hat-trick helped Schalke also come back from behind to beat Steve McClaren’s FC Twente.