The battle between Manchester United and Chelsea in the FA Cup quarterfinals turned out to be as epic as it expected.
Manchester jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Javier Hernandez (5th minute) and Wayne Rooney (11th). However, Chelsea got second half goals from Eden Hazard and Ramires and forged a 2-2 draw. Juan Mata had a late opportunity to give Chelsea the win but keeper David De Gea made a huge save.
"It's a terrific save at a very important time because if it goes in, we are out," Manchester Manager Sir Alex Ferguson said.
The competition ended with the players on the pitch but continued with the managers once the game was over.
Ferguson admitted that his team was lucky to remain in the tournament but faulted fatigue from Tuesday's tilt with Real Madrid.
"We're lucky to be in the cup. We just ran out of legs and Chelsea were far the better team in the second half," he said. "But I can't be critical of my side because the running they had to do on Tuesday night, against a really top side in Real Madrid, had its bearing on today's result, no doubt about that."
Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez took exception to this comment and responded, "I thought you were joking... They played on Tuesday, we played in Romania on Thursday. They were playing at home. They had everything in their favor."
He also criticized Ferguson for failing to give him a handshake at the end of the match. "I was waiting. I have education. I knew that a lot of people were watching. Ask him if you are brave enough," he told reporters.
The two teams will play another game at the Stamford Bridge to determine who moves on to the semifinal. However, there is no date set. "I don't know when it's going to be played mind you - probably May because we've got the international break coming up," said Ferguson. "But the only thing we can say is we're still in the cup."
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