United managed to win the Champions League tie 1-0 thanks to a late penalty goal by Wayne Rooney.
Rangers were forced to get a win in order to have a chance of getting to the next stage of the Champions League, due to Valencia’s big lead over Bursaspor.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game and that they were going to defend well, and they did,” Van der Sar told Sky Sports.
“Maybe they were a little bit on the negative side, but they’ve had some success with it.
“We hoped maybe in the second half, when they knew the result in Valencia, they would open up a bit and try to maybe win the game and maybe even try and stay in the Champions League.
“It didn’t really happen as they kept everything tight and it was tough for us to put the balls through.”
