United are out of the FA Cup after a brave semi-final showing from a very young Reds team, losing 4-2 on penalty kicks at Wembley.
Ironically, it was Phil Jagielka, the man whose foul should have given United a second-half penalty, who scored the winning spot-kick after the two teams could not be separated in 120 minutes of entertaining football. It's Sir Alex's first FA Cup semi-final defeat and ends the chance of an unprecedented quintuple. However, Sir Alex's team selection suggests he has his sights set on the league and Europe.
It had been something of a gamble and there were raised eyebrows when United’s team-sheet was submitted an hour before kick-off, with eight changes from the side that beat FC Porto four days previously. The absentees all stayed in Manchester, though reports that a broken metatarsal would rule Wayne Rooney out for the rest of the season proved woefully wide of the mark.
The average age of the starting team was just 22, the line-up including four teenagers, and seven players aged 25 or under. Sir Alex insisted he couldn’t ask many of his players involved in a taxing battle in Portugal to go again on a heavy Wembley pitch – only Anderson, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic from the team that started at Estadio do Dragao survived. Few, however, could have predicted the boss’ team.
