Nine years ago Manchester United legend Paul Scholes fired Manchester United into the final of the Champions League with a stunning strike against Barcelona. The goal gave the Red Devils a 1-0 aggregate victory and gave them all they needed to book a plane to Moscow.Sir Alex Ferguson's side withstood an almighty amount of pressure across both legs, and the goal provided the lasting memory of the tie, especially with Barcelona already in the process of becoming an all-conquering force on the European stage.With four years to go until he retired, many hailed the tactical influence of Ferguson in a master vs apprentice scenario against a fledgling Pep Guardiola, and he seemed to be at the height of his powers.However, cut to the present, and veteran midfielder Michael Carrick has revealed that the tactical nous didn't actually come from Ferguson, but rather from his assistant Carlos Queiroz instead.Queiroz wasn't fully appreciated at Old Trafford until he left the club, with his tactical ability being particularly missed during their forays into Europe.This weekend Carrick was a guest on Sky Sports' Fantasy Football Club and told Paul Merson drilled the middle of United's midfield in a 4-4-2 formation to nullify the threat coming from Barca."We were playing relentless games because of the league and the Champions League, we didn't really have time to train physically and do a lot of work, but Carlos Queiroz lead the session and he's brought two gym mats out onto the pitch," Carrick explained."We'd normally do situps on them, but he's put them on the pitch and slung them down just - it was me and Scholesy in midfield and I think Rio and Wes Brown were centre-halves - and he's put these two mats in between us, we're thinking; what's he up to here?

"Literally for about five minutes he's just said don't let the ball get on those mats, so straight away you switch on and you're blocking that space off, that's where Barcelona, around the edge of the box, that's where they wanted to get into, that space, that was how they played at the time.

"We played 4-4-2, two banks of four, blocked off that space, got a 0-0 draw at Barcelona and obviously managed to beat them at Old Trafford. Just little things like that make you think."

United were frequently comfortable imposing themselves on smaller sides, but against bigger teams they were forced to come up with a few aces up their sleeves, and it seems that Queiroz was the man behind the master plan.