Milan were delirious, Sao Paolo went crazy, Manchester United complained about a lack of sleep and kept an eye on the match at Stoke. We are a funny bunch in this country. It is a tremendous honour to be able to represent your nation and for United fans this is the way to do it. The general consensus on the England team around the stands of Old Trafford is that England are a London club who play at a London ground whose sole purpose is to injure United players. Well this time, we got to be both United and the representatives of our nation. Plus nobody got injured.

Of course, we don't know how this competition will evolve but it is appropriate, considering our history with the European Cup, that we embrace the challenge and take it seriously. Not to do so would be un-United.

I have had a whinge about the goals to shots ration in recent weeks and mentioned that we look a different team without Wayne Rooney. Lo and behold, the fearsome one returns and we score six goals in two games, the winner in the final was a particularly fine strike too. More encouragingly, we played well and were able to dominate a match against South America's best team despite having 10 men for the last forty minutes.

Can we now replicate this form in the league? Well I hope so. The game at Stoke, whilst by no means easy, will be a good place to start and our rivals at the top of the table are dropping points all over the place so it is all still to play for. Going into Christmas we already have the Charity Shield and the Club World Championship in the cabinet, now it is time to start focusing on the real trophies, we already know how they have evolved.