Captain Carles Puyol has vowed to repay Barcelona fans after Manchester United knocked the Catalan club out the Champions League on Tuesday.Paul Scholes' 14th minute thunderbolt into the top right corner was enough to send United to Moscow and the Champions League final as the English side triumphed 1-0 on aggregate.

Barca's European exit heaped more misery on their fans, with the team already out of the race for La Liga, and Puyol is determined his team-mates have to get over their disappointment as swiftly as possible and get back to winning ways.

"I think the team will still stick together," he said. "Barcelona has always been used to fighting and facing tough criticism. We've all gone through bad times before and we're stronger for it.

"We're going to try our hardest to give back to the fans what they deserve. I don't know how we'll do it but we will because they've stuck by us."

Barca travelled to Old Trafford knowing that, having played out a goaless draw in the Nou Camp, they just had to score at least as many as United.

But, as in Barcelona, despite their dominance, the Catalans could not breach the United goal, missing out on the final of Europe's premier club competition by the slenderest of margins.

"We showed passion, we showed character and we showed desire," added Puyol - who made his 75th appearance in the competition. "We are a team of winners. The only thing that was missing was the goal. If we had scored we would still be in it.

"And we will have to use all that to get over this. We have to get over this so that we can win the remaining games.

"We really wanted to get to the final. We lost against a great team and we gave our all. But it was a very even knockout tie, both teams were good. The only difference is that they scored - and it was a good goal. But the whole tie was very equal."

Barcelona were perhaps the better side on the night and over the two legs, but in the end sheer grit and determination won out as every single United player ensured Barca failed to score.

Barca might have been in bullish form before the match, vowing to hit the back of the net, but the facts suggested another matter.

Barca had won only one of their previous six games going into Tuesday's match and their perceived threat in front of goal never materialised as United maintained their 30th clean sheet in 53 games, while the Catalans failed to score for the third time on the trot.

"We tried our best but our shots just didn't go in," said Xavi. "They hit practically everywhere but the back of the net.

"But at the end of the day it doesn't matter because history will show that there was no Spanish team in the final.

"It doesn't matter how we played, it was a knockout and we didn't score either here or at home.

"We might have dominated the game more, and I think we did, but so what. We're out and that's very bad, also because already we don't have any chance of the winning La Liga.

"What's also bad is that we haven't scored in the past three games but we have to change that.

"We're going to do everything we can to take all the remaining points and go above Villarreal, or at least remain where we are."

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