Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that English clubs can recover from this season's Champions League failures.

Ferguson's side and rivals Manchester City both exited this year's competition in the group stage, leaving them to begin a campaign in the Europa League knockout stage.

Despite Arsenal and Chelsea qualifying for the latter stages of the Champions League, both have suffered first-leg defeats at the hands of AC Milan and Napoli respectively.

However, Ferguson said: "Spain had a great cycle about ten years ago when Valencia, Deportivo La Coruna, Villarreal, Real Madrid and Barcelona were all dominant.

"There were three of them in the semi-finals the year Real Madrid won it. We've had a great cycle in the Premier League for the eight years, with teams getting to semi-finals and finals.

"And I don't see that subsiding, to be honest with you."

United face Ajax in the Europa League on Thursday night.