Carrick: "United avanzará"
A pesar de la gran desilusión que fue el empate en los cuartos de final por la Copa FA ante el Chelsea, Michael Carrick insiste en que los Rojos están preparados para vencer a domicilio a los Azules en Stamford Bridge.
El mediocampista inglés brilló en la primera mitad del partido, pero el conjunto de Rafael Benítez rescató el empate después del entretiempo y forzó un partido de desempate para avanzar en el camino hacia Wembley.
"Desde luego llegaremos optimistas, ya que está en nuestra naturaleza", dijo Carrick. MUTV. "Vamos allá convencidos de que podemos ganar. Es una cancha difícil porque son un buen equipo, pero es una situación única y con frecuencia se dan algunos grandes encuentros clásicos. Tenemos la esperanza de poder obtener el triunfo esta vez".
Manchester City await the winners of the replay in next month's semi-final, completing a road to Wembley lined all the way by Premier League opposition, should the Reds progress past Chelsea. Nevertheless, Carrick is unperturbed by the rough route United have taken so far in this season's competition, conceding: "That's the way it is.
"If we'd beaten Chelsea then we'd have to play City in the final or the semi-final, so it's just the nature of the competition: you've got to beat everyone and that's what's ahead of us."
The manner of Chelsea's fightback at Old Trafford left United clinging on, and Carrick admitted that a replay is by no means the worst outcome for Sir Alex Ferguson's side.
"We've mixed emotions in some respects," he said. "We're completely disappointed, from the position we were in, not to finish it off - there are no excuses for that - but at the end we could be out of the competition with the opportunities they had, especially the save David made from Mata.
"David has stepped up there at a big time in the tie and kept us in it. We can be very thankful for that because we could have been out of the cup. It just shows his quality. When you need him, he's there. We're taking the positives, really: we're still in the cup, we've got another chance at it so we move on."
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