Chris Smalling admitted the Manchester United dressing room is bitterly disappointed after Chelsea ended their hopes of a double by dumping them out of the FA Cup.
Demba Ba’s audacious second-half finish was all that separated the two sides, denying the Red Devils an opportunity to face arch-rivals Manchester City in the semi-finals.
Attention now turns to wrapping up the Premier League in style, but Smalling admits they must learn from their poor second-half performance ahead of City’s visit on April 8.
“It will take a couple of days to get over this because a lot of us came into it with great confidence and we felt we were going to win this game,” Smalling told MUTV.
“At least we have a good game next Monday but we need to make sure that we rally together and win this title with aplomb.
“Our fans will be right behind us and we need to make sure that we give them a good performance because the second half was just not good enough.”
United could have wrapped up their semi-final place at the first time of asking after racing into a 2-0 lead against Chelsea at Old Trafford.
Goals from Eden Hazard and Ramires forced a visit to London, but Smalling insists his side were not concentrating on the past before the replay.
“At the start of the day, we saw this game as a new challenge and a fresh start so you can’t think about the lead in the first match and what might have been,” he added.
“We need to make sure that we remember this defeat next season and not let it slip again.”
Picture courtesy of Andrea Sartorati, via Flickr, with thanks.
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