Harry Redknapp has admitted that he was surprised to see Manchester United progress through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup with victory over West Ham United on Thursday night.
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“I think we deserved it”, said Van Gaal.
Hailing Rashford, who has now scored six times in 11 games, Van Gaal said: “He’s very focused on his work and that I admire when you are so young”.
If both clubs finish outside the top four and win the Champions League and Europa League respectively, they would qualify for next season’s Champions League at the expense of the fourth placed Premier League side.
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic says Manchester United’s passing ability was one of the key differences between the sides as the final FA Cup tie at Upton Park ended in disappointment.
“But we are still in the race for the top positions and the FA Cup, so I am very happy we can do that”.
“You compare apples with pears, I think”, said Van Gaal.
United’s win takes some of the pressure off manager Louis van Gaal following last Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Tottenham. It’s been a season of setbacks and then good results, and it’s frustrating that we keep trying to get that consistency and have a couple of good games and then a bad one. He believes that Van Gaal is mismanaging Rashford and has been overplaying him.
“I want to win a title in England because I’ve won a title in every country”.
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“You can not deny that my team has a lot of fighting spirit”. “The prognosis is still to come and it is better to do that after two days but it is not so heavy [an injury] we think so we will have to see”. We know that. Of course we are not going to make our players be afraid of them, no. But respect them. However, that was not sufficient for the Hammers as several saves from the Spaniard helped United to avoid playing the extra time and also helped them seal a berth at Wembley for the semi-final.
