Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Ole's verdict on the Manchester derby

Wednesday 29 January 2020 23:15

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted to having mixed emotions after a 1-0 away win at Manchester City proved insufficient in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.

The Reds triumphed on the night, with Nemanja Matic scoring the goal, but the Serbian was sent off in the second half, to leave the 10 men up struggling to push for the all-important second goal.

Consequently, the home side held out for a 3-2 aggregate victory to set up a final date with Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium.

Solskjaer 'proud' of United's effort Video

Solskjaer 'proud' of United's effort

Ole has plenty of praise for his players, despite our Carabao Cup exit...

Speaking to Sky Sports, MUTV and in his post-match press conference, Ole had this to say...

RED CARD WAS HARSH

"Of course, it’s hard to come here and score with 11, never mind 10. It’s never a sending off. It’s ironic, for me, that he gets a yellow card on his first foul and then nearly for his second - which wasn’t even a foul. And, yeah, the last one is a yellow card. But how many times did they foul us? How many times was Dan James fouled and in the first half, Jesse [Lingard]? For me, that’s the first question and it shouldn’t be like this because I’m so proud of these players. They’ve beaten City twice in six weeks at their place. They’ve come, so far, these boys, and they’ve given us absolutely everything."

THEY GAVE THEIR ALL

"These boys have come a long way. They’ve given absolutely everything. They’ve developed - I think, in the first half, even though we didn’t create too many clear-cut chances, we pressed them back and had spells where we were attacking and we had spells where they were defending deep, which pleased me."

ARE YOU MISSING RASHFORD?

"Of course, we’re missing Marcus, Paul [Pogba], Scott [McTominay], we’re missing big players and we came here and beat them again. I’m so proud of how far they’ve come these boys and they’ve just got to realise that themselves. They need to keep carrying on with this attitude and character and defend as well as we did and of course we have the best goalkeeper in world when he’s in the form; he kept us in the game. It’s a strange feeling going out, but still being so proud of the players."

Ole on the touchline with Pep Guardiola.

WHO IMPRESSED THE BOSS?

"David [De Gea] shows, again, when he's the best keeper in the world. I think the back four, with Harry [Maguire] and Victor [Lindelof], were excellent. Young Brandon [Williams] has been unbelievable again. And Nemanja was the Man of the Match for me."

ONE BIG PUSH FOR SATURDAY

"The pressure we built was good. You know, these boys are tired; they are down on their knees. We're squeezing absolutely everything out of them, and they've been absolutely brilliant again. We know everything about Wolves; they know everything about us. So we don't need too much time on the pitch, we just need treatment and recovery and to get going again."

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