Manchester United qualified for the FA Cup quarter-finals last night after an impressive second half against Reading FC.
Ferguson made several changes to his squad and only David de Gea, Jones and Danny Welbeck started from the beginning. Van Persie and Ferdinand were on the bench and Rooney not even in the squad. Reading manager McDermott started with Adam Le Fondre up front.
Manchester United dominated the game straight from the beginning and Reading keeper Federici had to make several saves against Welbeck, Valencia and Hernandez to keep Reading in the game. Federici made a superb save in the mid of the first half when he pushed Tom Cleverley’s 20-yard shot aside and saved Young’s rebound. The injured Jones was replaced by Nani in the 42nd minute. Nani came on and showed his skills when he struck the post just before half time.
United kept pressing in the second half and created more chances. First, Hunt had to save off the line than Federici had to make another save against Anderson. Ferguson started to get frustrated, before Nani scored the deserved lead for ManUnited in the 69th minute. Valencia with an excellent pass and Nani with a great finish into the corner. Hernandez extended the lead just 2 minutes later when he converted a Nani cross in the 72nd minute. Reading came back with McAnuff who scored the 2:1 in the 82st minute and gave Reading new hopes. However, it was too late and United qualified for the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Sir Alex Ferguson said after the game: “Some of the football tonight was fantastic and we could have scored a lot of goals. In that way I’m satisfied.”
Reading manager Brian McDermott was also satisfied with the performance of his team and siad: “We really wanted to put on a performance for our fans and we have done that. Now we can look forward to Saturday’s game against Wigan.”
United will travel to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, February 23rd and Reading will host Wigan.
