Matic Is Man Of The Match

Nemanja Matic claimed Manchester United's Man of the Match award after helping the Reds progress to the Emirates FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.

The Serbian supplied a delightful cross for Romelu Lukaku to power home a header in the first half before heading in a second himself seven minutes from time from Ashley Young’s free-kick to seal a 2-0 victory over Brighton in Saturday’s quarter-final.

The combative midfielder was subsequently crowned the star man by fans on Twitter for the fifth time this season, after receiving a massive 80 per cent of the final vote. Fellow goalscorer Lukaku (10 per cent) and goalkeeper Sergio Romero (10 per cent) were the other players nominated.

Reflecting on the victory over the Seagulls, Matic told BT Sport: "It’s been a difficult for us after the defeat [against Sevilla] of course,” he said. “We always said after the Sevilla game that it was very important to see a reaction and I am happy that we went through and we go to the semi-final.

“I'm happy for the team. Of course, at 1-0, the result is always dangerous because they [Brighton] are a good team and they could always punish us for any mistakes, so it was important to kill the game by scoring a second and that's exactly what we did.”

He went on: “I am sure after national team break we will come back stronger as there is still lots to achieve. In the Premier League, it’s always difficult to be in the top four because every team is strong, every team hopes to be in the first four to play Champions League so we have to fight until the end to be in the top four positions.

“We are second and I hope we will stay there and in the FA Cup we are in the semi-finals so anything is possible.

"When you play for Manchester United, supporters always expect you to win the trophies and I hope that we are ready to win the FA Cup, which is very important in England, so we will fight until the end of course.”