Of course, the papers are stuffed with coverage of the Man Utd-Everton match yesterday. The main talking points are whether United should have been awarded a penalty in the second half - for Phil Jagielka's trip on Danny Welbeck - as well as Ferguson's post-match anger at referee Mike Riley. Here are some selected highlights.
The Mail's Matt Lawton leads with the penalty-that-wasn't, and says it strengthens the case for more technology in refereeing:
"There were six officials at Wembley and still they got the one key decision wrong.
Long before this mind-numbing war of attrition was reduced to a lottery, Manchester United had their claims for a perfectly good penalty ignored.
Just about every member of the largest crowd in FA Cup semi-final history saw Phil Jagielka send Danny Welbeck crashing to the ground in the 68th minute and so did an incensed Sir Alex Ferguson.
But on a weekend when a sixth official was named, somewhat controversially, by the FA, Mike Riley and his colleagues provided yet more ammunition for those who consider it more prudent to employ modern technology before extra bodies."
But, the Welbeck incident notwithstanding, most commentators feel that Everton deserved their victory. Here's Oliver Kay in the Times:
"There is a world of difference between wanting victory, as United’s players did, and yearning for it, like their opponents, and, as Phil Jagielka banged the decisive penalty past Ben Foster, sparking euphoric celebrations among the hordes of Everton fans, it was impossible to escape the feeling that justice had been done."
While his colleague, Patrick Barclay concentrates on the dodgy playing surface, which he feels ruined the spectacle:
"It was tricky enough to keep upright on this pitch — hence Riley’s reasonable suspicion that Danny Welbeck had fallen unaided by Phil Jagielka’s challenge when United were denied — let alone put together sustained passing movements. So instead we got long balls and close combat."
The Guardian's Daniel Taylor argues that Sir Alex Ferguson's team selection was to blame for the defeat:
"We will never know what would have happened had United not left Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney et al in Manchester, and, of course, there was a certain logic to Ferguson's argument that he had to think of the gruelling effects of the Champions League tie against FC Porto last Wednesday and preserve players such as Ronaldo for future assignments.
But an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley is surely not the time or place to experiment on such a grand scale. United were laboured, slow to the ball and not decisive enough when they had possession. Federico Macheda, the Italian with the provisional driver's licence and Midge Ure sideburns, showed some neat little flicks and an impressive eagerness to get on the ball. Daniel Welbeck, his strike partner, worked tirelessly, too. Overall, though, Ferguson was asking too much to expect a forward line incorporating an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old to make up for the absence of Ronaldo and Rooney, two of the most penetrative front players on the planet. Welbeck's runs were often into cul-de-sacs, while from Macheda there was little of the wow factor with which he had announced himself to English football."
In the Sun, Stephen Howard laments the quality of FA Cup ties at Wembley, and says that Dimitar Berbatov's penalty attempt summed up the occasion:
"His attempted penalty yesterday was a disgrace to a player who cost £30.75m. It would have been a disgrace to a player who had cost two bob.
As he ambled up to the spot, his body language was all wrong. He was either totally over-confident or shredded by nerves. Or didn’t care.
Whatever the cause, the result was a powderpuff attempt that trickled along the ground, straight into Tim Howard’s trailing left foot.
It summed up his season. Casual, seemingly uncommitted and too prepared to let others do his running for him.
In the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney yesterday, Berba should have stepped up to the plate when he came on for extra-time.
Instead, he did the only thing at which he has flourished this season — he went missing."
And Ian Herbert, writing in the Independent, says that is was only when Phil Jagielka stepped up to take the last penalty that Everton fans started to believe their team would win:
"Even the penalty shootout did not seem to offer much hope. True to a season in which Moyes has been forced to stitch together what teams he can, the three players who have scored penalties in the campaign – Mikel Arteta, Yakubu and Jo – were either injured or, in Jo's case, Cup-tied. When the converted striker Cahill blasted over, their fate seemed sealed. But then the destiny which has been with Everton throughout this most arduous Cup adventure took over. Yet only when Phil Jagielka, a man who has typified their spirit and been their finest performer this season, stepped up to take the final penalty, was the outcome finally in no doubt."
Pete
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