Edwin van der Sar believes Lille only have themselves to blame for Tuesday's defeat.
Edwin van der Sar believes Lille only have themselves to blame for Tuesday's controversial UEFA Champions League defeat to Manchester United.
Uefa looks certain to launch a major investigation into the game and incidents in the crowd which eventually led to tear gas being thrown into the stands.
In a game tarred by controversy, the Lille players had threatened to walk off after Ryan Giggs had netted the eventual winning goal with seven minutes remaining.
The atmosphere gradually worsened and the crowd began throwing missiles onto the pitch, one of which hit Gary Neville on the head as he attempted to take a throw-in.
Van der Sar, who himself suffered from blurred vision as a result of tear gas being thrown at his end of the pitch, had little sympathy for Lille or their goalkeeper Tony Sylva, who was still lining up his wall when Giggs stroked home the fateful free-kick.
"It is obvious as a keeper you have to be aware of situations like that," said the veteran Dutchman.
"The rules are the same everywhere. If a player asks the referee if he can take a quick free-kick, he can take it.
"We have seen this kind of thing happen all over Europe and Ryan showed good imagination by taking advantage of the situation.
"As a keeper, that kind of thing will probably happen to you once in your career. It was a good time for it to happen in our favour."
Van der Sar admitted he had never seen anything like the 'walk off' Giggs' goal had prompted.
The Dutchman also admitted to agreeing with Sir Alex Ferguson's viewpoint in that his team-mates should have restarted play and scored a second goal against a non-existent side instead of convincing them to resume play.
"I have never seen that before," he admitted.
"I actually think we should just have played on. It was a legitimate goal and that is it."
Despite the game finishing with an unexpected natural conclusion, Uefa has launched a huge investigation into the game.
