Paul Scholes has explained why he believes Manchester United struggled to dominate on the European scene when he was a player.
Scholes was part of United sides that reached four Champions League finals, with United winning two of them in 1999 and 2008, but losing in 2009 and 2011, both times to Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola's Barcelona side of 2008-2012 is widely regarded as one of the greatest club sides in European history.
While Real Madrid, who boasted a star-studded squad in the early 2000s, were another side who stopped United from adding to their European Cup tally earlier in the century.
And Scholes believes that in any other era United might have won the competition several more times.
"We were quite unlucky really. In any other era we might have won four, five, or six European Cups," he told the A Goal In One Podcast.
"But the teams that were about... you look at Guardiola’s Barcelona team – Jesus, how good were they?!
"You could go right through the team. In midfield you had Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi. Henry on the left. Centre halves of Gerard Pique and Carlos Puyol. Just unreal. They’re without doubt the best team I’ve played against. They’re one of the best teams that’s ever been."
Scholes went on to recall what it was like to face Madrid before Barcelona arrived on the scene.
"If I go a bit further back and think of the Real Madrid side that we played against,” he recalled. "We got absolutely battered in the Bernabeu one year. 3-1 it was in the first game but what a team that was. It’s not far away from that Barcelona team.
"They had the Brazilian Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Redondo was unreal, Raul, Roberto Carlos, Hierro, Iker Casillas in goal, that was a team that was just ridiculous.
"We came up against some ridiculous teams. We did alright against them but Barcelona just had that edge over that great Real Madrid team."
