Ole reacts to Carabao Cup derby loss

The Reds trailed by three goals at half-time in the first leg of our semi-final clash, but rallied in the second period to reduce the deficit through the fourth derby goal of Marcus Rashford's career.

While it was a disappointing night for United, Ole stated his belief that the cup tie is far from from over and had some words of praise for half-time substitute Nemanja Matic.

Here’s a round-up of what the boss said during his post-match interviews with MUTV and Sky Sports…

FIRST-HALF STRUGGLES

“Well, in the first half, until they scored, it was an even game I thought. But we didn’t cope with the setback of their goal well enough. We need to learn how to handle that better, batten down the hatches, make sure we stay in the game. Stay 1-0 down and let’s make sure we get to grips with it. We didn’t and you might say [we were] lucky to be only 3-0 down at half-time. We just didn’t recover from those goals until half-time, when we [the coaches] could get into their heads a little bit.”

IMPROVEMENT IN THE SECOND PERIOD

“We wanted to see their characters because that’s not good enough what we did in the first half. [At half-time it was a case of] let’s see who’s got the belief, who’s got the pride, who’s got the character to turn this around? I thought the second half was a great response. We cannot ask for a better response really than the second half and, with the crowd, we went for it. We created some chances and that was more like it. We won it 1-0 and that means we’re still in the tie in a sense.”

MATIC’S SECOND-HALF IMPACT

“With Nemanja, with his experience, he offered more presence in there. But, then again, it was more about wanting the ball, believing, taking the ball, passing forward - that was one of the things.”

THE TIE IS STILL ALIVE

“We’ve shown before when we’re down from a home tie and turned it around. Last year against PSG is the last example for us. We just have to believe when we go to the Etihad and hope we put a performance on. We created loads of chances there last time we went, we’ve done that time and time again as a club.”

YOUNGSTERS WILL LEARN

“You talk about youth and Brandon - only 19. Mason - 18, Marcus is only 22, so yeah, we had a very young team. It’s a great possibility to learn from this, for them. We need to learn to deal with setbacks better. Brandon was fantastic in the second half, and the first half as well. And Fred, as well. I thought Fred was excellent. And [for] our goal, [there was] Angel’s good tackle, Mason’s great weight of pass and a good finish by Marcus, so that’s promising.”

FOCUS ON NORWICH THIS SATURDAY

“What can you do? Can you go and feel sorry for yourself? No, there’s absolutely no chance that I will and the players will. We’ve got to react, we need to win on Saturday.”

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