"We are history makers," he declared at the start of his post-match press conference. But despite the obvious elation, he was serious when he said United would be competitive as we head into unchartered territory.
"I said to the players at the end, we've got to go in there and not just make up the numbers, we have to go and really be excited by the opportunity to play against Europe's best teams. If you want to be there, you've got to perform against them.
"I hope that the teams that get us, they see that actually they didn't really want to play Manchester United.