Matic looks forward to crucial league match

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Reds are currently fifth in the table and can secure a top-four finish by winning both of the remaining top-flight fixtures, against West Ham United and Leicester City. 

A victory over the Hammers in midweek would lift United up to fourth and crucially build a three-point advantage over the Foxes, ahead of Sunday’s all-important trip to the King Power Stadium. 

While speaking to us at Wembley on Sunday, Matic accepted the loss to his former club was hard to take, but his focus quickly switched to Wednesday’s significant match in the Premier League. 

“I'm already three years at United so for me every game is special when I play and especially at Wembley, so it doesn't matter who it's against,” he said. “Of course there is always some feelings when we play against Chelsea because it is my ex-club. But we are disappointed because we lost. 

“We wanted to get to the final and Chelsea scored three goals, they used their chances and deserved to be in the final, so our focus now is on Wednesday night against West Ham. We have to win that game. 

“From this moment, we will focus on that and we've already spoke a little bit in the changing room about that. In three days we have another challenge and we have to recover as soon as possible.”

Matic is experienced enough to know that defeats can and will happen in football, and especially at the highest level when teams are so evenly matched. The key, he told us, is to learn from the losses.

“We always want to win and that's exactly what we tried today, but this is football,” Matic told us on Sunday night.

“You don't win always, sometimes you don't have your day, you don't play well and this can happen, but we know what we are playing for, so in the future we cannot allow to concede three goals like we conceded today and I am sure we will learn from this.”