Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Reacts To Man Utd 1 Chelsea 3 In FA Cup

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer tasted defeat for the first time since 2019/20 restarted, as Manchester United lost 3-1 to Chelsea at Wembley, and the manager will be making plans to ensure it will be the last, with two huge Premier League games on the horizon.The Norwegian won the FA Cup as a player in 1999 but he’ll have to wait a while longer to do the same as a coach, after seeing his side slip up in the semi-final on Sunday evening.

Here’s what the boss had to say about the game, in his post-match interview and press conference…

THOUGHTS ON THE PERFORMANCE

“Of course, if you lose the game you’re very disappointed. We had the first half that we expected, two teams that knew each other really well. We waited a bit for each other, nothing really happened until the long layoff and their goal and of course that’s disappointing that we go into half-time 1-0 down. We tried to make a change, a positive change, but it didn’t work.”

MUST DO BETTER IN BIG GAMES

“You want to win everything and we’re very disappointed in the dressing room, but we need to be better in these big games when it matters. We know that, we’ll have to take that into account, learn again and get ready for the next big ones. We’ve got two in five days coming up.”

BAILLY BLOW

“We hope Eric will be fine. He had a cut on his head. When he and Harry were down for a long time, it was a big moment. Obviously the long layoff was a big test and we didn’t pass it because we lost our concentration and conceded a goal just before half-time, which was disappointing. That had a massive impact on the game.”

MAGUIRE’S CONDITION

“Harry’s fine. He had a cut above the eye so he’ll be fine.”

TEAM SELECTION

“We picked a team today to give us a best possible opportunity to go through in the cup and be ready for Wednesday. It didn’t work today. We almost got to half-time and we had the change when Eric had to come off, but that will stand us in good stead for Wednesday. I picked a team today to go through.”

DE GEA’S DISPLAY

“Obviously everyone has to perform and everyone has a chance every time we play to stake a claim in the team. David knows he should have saved the second goal, but that’s done now. We’ve got to move on and look forward to Wednesday. It’s hard for a keeper to make amends apart from David making two or three fantastic saves after. It’s so much easier for outfield players but David, in the rest of the game, made a few good saves. But he knows he could have saved that one.”

PRAISE FOR WILLIAMS

“You saw Brandon [Williams] and the character he showed. He played a square pass into Mount [which led to their second goal] and he probably felt a bit responsible, but for the rest of the half he was absolutely outstanding. The kid has been out for a while and not played, and had the eye injury, but his character and personality out there was great, he kept going and kept going.”

LEARNING FROM DEFEAT

“What do we have to learn? We’ve got loads of things to learn as a team, but we are learning and we are developing. This team took a knock today confidence-wise, but let’s see how the reaction is on Wednesday.”