Moyes Has No Complaints

Defeat on penalties to Sunderland may have been a heartbreaking way to lose a Capital One Cup semi-final, but manager David Moyes says Manchester United did not deserve to beat Sunderland.

The Reds defended stoutly for most of the game at Old Trafford on Wednesday night but an inability to add to Jonny Evans’ first-half goal meant the tie was still precariously poised going into extra time.

Ex-Red Phil Bardsley turned the game on its head with a late goal in the added period, only for Javier Hernandez to score a dramatic, 120th-minute tie-leveller.

But the Black Cats then prevailed 2-1 on penalties to book a Wembley date with Manchester City, leaving Moyes with no complaints.

The manager told MUTV: "We probably haven't played well enough tonight to merit going through, but we were getting there. We had hung on.

"We had defended well enough in the end to make sure we were going to see the game out at 1-0. But it changed, and credit to the lads. They got themselves a goal again.

"But I've got no complaints. I just don't think we had a level of performance that merited winning the game more comfortably, and that's what I was looking for.

"If we'd gone through I'd have been disappointed in the performance, but obviously I'm doubly disappointed because we didn't get through. With a minute to go, we were in the final.

"We didn't play well enough tonight and Sunderland came here and deservedly got themselves into the final."

Bardsley’s shot for Sunderland's goal on the night squirmed past David De Gea, but Moyes preferred to focus on the Reds' failings from the spot.

Danny Welbeck, Adnan Januzaj, Phil Jones and Rafael all missed, leaving captain Darren Fletcher as the only Red who was successful with his penalty.

"David has been very good this season but the players got us out of the hole at the time," Moyes said. "I know it didn't get us through but it at least gave us a chance when it went to penalties. We were terrible at penalty kicks, terrible.

"Maybe on another day we'd have had a different set of penalty takers. But that's what we had available to us on the night. It just didn't quite work.

"I think the bigger disappointment was how we played in the game."