Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson felt Chelsea did not exactly deserve their F.A. quarterfinal replay victory, but acknowledged his side did nothing much either to warrant a place in the semi-finals.
Demba Ba scored the only goal of the game early in the second half to give the Blues a 1-0 victory over the English Premier League leaders, and with it sealing yet another semi-final place in the F.A. Cup.
Ferguson was really looking forward to completing a double, with the league pretty much already sealed - United lead by 15 points with just eight games remaining -- but felt his side lacked the necessary composure to find their way back from a goal down at Stamford Bridge.
"We were comfortable in the first half and I couldn't see them getting into the game or being any great threat to us," Ferguson told the club's official website. "But the goal, as it always does, changed the game.
"We spoke about Ba and the experience we had with him a couple of years ago at Newcastle when he scored exactly the same type of goal. We were caught napping to be honest. It wasn't a good start for us right at the beginning of the second half.
"After that I think we lacked the composure to win the game and create proper openings. We had a lot of possession but didn't make the best use of it and they caused us quite a few problems on the counter-attack.
"They've got several players like Hazard, Oscar and Mata who sleep in little pockets and can cause you bother on the counter. Fortunately we didn't lose another goal, but I couldn't really see us scoring either.
"Robin van Persie had a fantastic chance and should have scored, but he put it over the bar. We had a couple of headers past the post and Cech made a fantastic save from Chicharito. But we just lacked composure when we had to chase the game and didn't play as well as we should have in the second half."
United next face Manchester City in the Premier League on Monday, and Ferguson wants a much better performance from his players.
"We must kick on," he added. "We're disappointed and the players are down. They're disappointed because they know they can do better.
"To be honest with you, for the ninety minutes I thought only Antonio Valencia reached the standard that we expect of them.
"Phil Jones, for a good part of the game, and David De Gea did well. But in terms of the ninety-minute performance, Antonio was the only one.
"But we need to forget this result and look forward to the game with City. A positive result for us next Monday will just about seal the title for us."
