Manchester United were far from five-star at Old Trafford on Wednesday night but they really did not need to be to secure their place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Their opponents, Lille, made life quite difficult for United for long periods but in the end they just did not have the class needed to overcome that defeat in Lens. It has been a successful season for them in this competition and qualification from their group was a big achievement.
That goal by Ryan Giggs in the first leg allowed United to set up their team with five players across the middle to match the five of Lille and that made things very congested in the middle of the park.
It meant that Manchester United struggled to play through Lille but it put the onus on the French side to try to get back into the tie.
There is a large degree of risk involved in that strategy but Alex Ferguson was confident that his team would be able to pull it off. That they did and it was fitting that Henrik Larsson scored on his last competitive home appearance.
I am surprised that Manchester United have not moved heaven and earth to keep him but Larsson has always maintained that he wanted to go home on 12 March. He has a young family who have been travelling back and forth from Sweden and they have found that quite hard.
The fact that United are now without Solskjaer and Saha makes it all the more surprising that Larsson is not being made an offer he cannot refuse to stay. But Celtic tried to stop him leaving a few years ago and he would not budge so Ferguson and company had a fair idea that Larsson would not be for turning.
We thought the match would be an explosive affair after first leg but it did not turn out that way. Lille were certainly physical but the talk of the match boiling over was way off the mark. Ferguson and Puel may not be exchanging Christmas cards but at least the two shook hands afterwards.
Manchester United just wanted to be in the draw on Friday and that is where they are but they will have to improve greatly if they are to make it to the last four. Their passing was ordinary again and too many of their big players were off their very best form.
The big surprise of Wednesday night was the demise of Arsenal. I did think they would find it very hard to come from a goal down to beat PSV at home and that turned out to be the case. The Dutch side are tough to score against and are well-drilled by Ronald Koeman.
Alex got up well for the goal in the second half and they will be a handful for their opponents in the quarter-finals. Arsenal were poor defensively on the night and they paid the price. Their season is now over, which is a huge blow to Wenger and we are still in early March.
I was not surprised that Celtic came so close to shocking AC Milan at San Siro and they deserve huge credit for taking the tie right down to the wire.
Gordon Strachan made some very interesting comments after the match about Celtic having to improve their technical ability to compete at the top level.
Strachan is an excellent coach and his players will improve but there is still the feeling that Celtic suffer in Europe because of the standard of the Scottish Premier League.
Liverpool and Chelsea made it through on Tuesday after some nervous moments towards the end of their respective matches.
Liverpool nearly blew it but they deserved their victory over Barcelona in the tie, while Chelsea needed a rousing talk from Jose Mourinho to help them see off Porto.
I thought all four English teams would be in the hat for the draw on Friday but it is just three now, which is still an excellent return for the Premiership.
I am not sure if all three will make it to the semi-finals because I have this feeling that Manchester United will be drawn against Liverpool or Chelsea in the quarters but all will be revealed soon enough.
