Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini:
“Of course I am disappointed that we have lost the game and gone out of the FA Cup but I was pleased that we played such a good game and I am proud of my players,” declared the City chief.
“The players have shown character and taken a step forward. I think more than ever that we can go on and win the league.
“If we show the same attitude and strength in other games that we showed against United with only ten men then yes we can win the league. I said we had to improve and I think we are doing so.
“To play 80 minutes against one of the best teams in Europe with ten men and come so close to saving the game was fantastic.”
“I don’t think it was a red card, we will appeal and I hope we win the appeal,” he said. “But I don’t want to talk about the referee because I want to be on the bench for the next home game.”
“I think it was right to leave Joe out,” he said. “If we need Costel late in the season then it is important that he gets time to play.”
Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson:
“I think we made them look better than they were. We just had a carelessness in the second half. The problem was, we were 3-0 up at half time and we thought we were through and they took our foot off the pedal.”
“We lost possession just after half time; they got a free-kick and scored. They went into a defensive formation and you have to give them full credit for that. They waited and waited, hoping we would make mistakes and we did make mistakes, which made it a scoreline that it shouldn’t have been.”
“The game happened in three phases; first we scored the opening goal which was terrific as were going to be very difficult to beat from that point. The sending off was obviously next, which was a two-footed tackle and we were lucky because if Nani gets contact then he’s got a real bad problem.”
