Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed he is disappointed not to have battled against Cristiano Ronaldo in the Champions League.

Real Madrid were elimination from Europe's elite competition by Lyon while Manchester United thrashed AC Milan to move on to the quarter-final stage.

Ferguson was all ready to face his former superstar in the Champions League this season, and even admitted that the Red Devils would have had difficulty in shackling the Portuguese winger.

"In my mind, I had a thought that, somewhere along the line, we were going to meet them [Real Madrid] and Ronaldo would be up against us," the United boss told the Daily Mail.

"We would have needed a machine gun to stop him!"

"I am disappointed for Ronaldo not having qualified. We had someone at the game [against Lyon] and the report was he [Ronaldo] was absolutely fantastic."