Cup was third on Manchester United list

Posted Monday, April 18, 2011 by Express.co.uk

Cup was third on Manchester United list
Manchester United player Paul Scholes is sent off after 72 minutes

NANI attempted to put a positive spin on the end of Manchester United’s Treble hopes by insisting the FA Cup was third on their list of priorities.

And he said Sir Alex Ferguson’s team will not allow the disappointment of their semi-final defeat to have a negative effect on their remaining games, starting with tomorrow’s rearranged Premier League trip to Newcastle.

“Of course, we are very disappointed now,” said Nani. “It is always difficult to lose a semi-final, especially to your rivals. But we are experienced enough to forget this and think about the games coming up because the other trophies we are competing for are more important than this one.

“If we had to sacrifice one trophy from the three we were hoping to win then the FA Cup would be the one.

“We would prefer to win the Champions League and the Premier League. We’ve got to recover quickly.”

Nani pointed to Dimitar Berbatov’s amazing first-half miss, the defensive blunders that led to Yaya Toure’s goal and Paul Scholes’ second-half dismissal as the three pivotal moments.

United completed an unwanted hat-trick of FA Cup setbacks at the new Wembley following their defeat to Chelsea in the 2007 final and their shoot-out exit to Everton in the 2009 semi-finals. Nani added: “We had two fantastic chances to score when we were in control of the game in the first half and had we taken them, it would have been different.

“Then we gave the ball away for their goal and that changed everything. Our spirit went down and theirs went up.”

United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar said: “Nobody performed to their standard.

“We were hoping for that famous injury-time goal again but our luck ran out a little bit.”