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That was a blistering performance by the European team to beat the United States 14½-13½ to win the Ryder Cup and the victory goes to the top of the league.

It was a magnificent performance from the whole European team and I have never seen a more exciting end to a Ryder Cup - and I've seen plenty.

It was absolutely brilliant to do that over here in front of a crowd that was very much rooting for the home side.

When we won on American soil for the first time, under the captaincy of Tony Jacklin in 1987, that was a remarkable achievement but to do what they have done at Medinah is magnificent.

Nobody over here in America gave us a cat in hell's chance but we have not just tied and retained the Cup, we have won it.

Captain Jose Maria Olazabal had to stack his top order in the 12 singles matches with his best players because there was no point in having them going out last when the Ryder Cup could already have been lost.

But having said that, everyone did their job with Germany's Martin Kaymer and Italy's Francesco Molinari performing heroically in the final two matches.

When Kaymer three-putted to lose the 15th I thought he was going to fall apart but he holed two tremendous putts on the final two holes.

Paul Lawrie was the outstanding performer though for Europe. He played wonderful golf to absolutely crush the in-form Brandt Snedeker who had just won the Tour Championship to win the $6m bonus prize.

Ian Poulter was the top points scorer for the Europeans with four points from his four matches and he was immense all weekend. He brings tremendous passion to the team and if he could find that throughout the rest of the season he would be winning many more tournaments.

Olazabal seemed to be subdued for much of the competition and not very visible for much of the time but it doesn't matter what sort of captain he was because he will be remembered for winning the Ryder Cup on American soil and for that he will be a legend.

Peter Alliss was talking to ����ý Sport's Peter Scrivener.