United eye trophy after victory

Diego Forlan admitted his team-mates now had their minds set on lifting the first trophy of the season after hitting the goal that gave Manchester United a Worthington Cup quarter-final win over Chelsea.

The £7million Uruguayan striker struck his seventh goal of the season 10 minutes from time to maintain his recent hot scoring streak and book United‘s place in the last four.

And afterwards he said: “It‘s nice we are now in the semi and it‘s good for us. There are only two games left and we have to see who we play against in the semis.”

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson was particularly pleased with the performance of his two centre-backs for the night, Wes Brown and Mikael Silvestre.

“I‘m pleased with the result, it was a very difficult game and both teams put a lot on it,” Ferguson told Sky Sports 2.

“The first goal was crucial – whoever scored that was going to win. I thought we had more speed to our game in the first half, and Chelsea came more into second half, but we got the goal that mattered.

“The players wanted to win tonight. They defended very well and the two centre-backs were marvellous.”

Ferguson again reserved special praise for Forlan, who displayed the same clinical accuracy that beat Liverpool this month and knocked out Burnley in the last round of the competition.

“The little lad puts a lot into his game and I‘m pleased for him,” the Scot said.

Man-of-the-match Silvestre admitted another clean sheet was good news for United‘s confidence.

He said: “It was a really close game, Chelsea played good football, so we are delighted. It is good for the confidence of the back four.”

Blues star Gianfranco Zola did not feel his side had deserved to lose.

“We are very disappointed because we didn‘t deserve to lose,” he said.

“They scored at the moment when we were on top of them, but we don‘t come out of this game with dishonour, we played a fantastic game and after this game we can be sure that we will be on top for the rest of the season.

“We had two great chances in the first half.”

Speaking about his future, the 36-year-old Italian added that he “really appreciated” being approached by the Stamford Bridge club with a view to him extending his contract.

He said: “I‘m pleased that the club is approaching me, that’s certainly a good indication. Now I have to talk to them and see what comes out of that.

“I really appreciate the club coming to talk to me.”