The dream of Manchester United to accomplish the unprecedented quintuple and lift five trophies in one season has been wrecked by the blue side of Merseyside. Everton dispatched Alex Ferguson’s men, beating United at a shoot-out at Wembley, setting up a dramatic final for the world’s oldest tournament with Chelsea on May 30.
 
Nemanja Vidic, was arguably United’s best performing player on the day, and he scored in the penalty shoot-out, but that is of little consolation to the Serbian as the Reds crashed out.
 
"We're disappointed because this is a trophy we wanted to win," he told the club’s website. "We played some good football and created chances, but in the end it came to penalties – and that’s just a lottery. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In the Champions League final we won… but today we didn’t score our penalties. You have to congratulate Everton."
 
Alex Ferguson had to gamble on this game, regardless of the value of the trophy. United’s fixture list is simply beyond hectic and although the FA is valuable, there is a bigger fish to fry. Before the match, when the team sheet appeared on the television screens, it was apparent that he had reshuffled his team to such an extend, making no less than eight changes from the outfit that beat Porto in midweek.
 
In particular, some key players who were subbed for the game didn’t even make the trip to London, as they weren’t included in the squad. Furthermore, reports that Wayne Rooney is out for the rest of the season with a broken metatarsal bone, also proved false.
 
United were to face Everton with only Anderson, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic from the team that started in Portugal, the rest was a makeshift unit of teenagers and younger players.
 
Everton played with passion and determination throughout the match and pressed United all over. They were aware that the Red Devils were out with a weakened squad and wanted to exploit the opportunity. And while this transpired to be a powerful display for the Toffees, it was not a good performance by United. Rather, they were lucky to last to penalties at all.
 
Referee Mike Riley refused to give what appeared to be a penalty when defender Phil Jagielka brought down Danny Welbeck in the second half, which is something United supporters probably will not be too happy about, but their disappointment was only to get bigger as the proceedings went on.
 
Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov was struggling to make an impression on the pitch and lift his team, but his efforts went in vein.
 
And so it went to extra times and the Russian roulette of penalty shootouts. Vidic dispatched his spot-kick with powerful shot opening the account for United.
 
Tim Cahill missed Everton's first penalty, giving hope for the red section of the ground, but Everton then quickly restored superiority as keeper Tim Howard saved United's first two efforts from Dimitar Berbatov and Rio Ferdinand.
 
On target for Everton were Leighton Baines, Phil Neville and James Vaughan  with Jagielka scoring the final penalty sending the Everton supporters berserk, and thus the Toffees reached the showpiece of the FA Cup final for the first time in 14 years as they will face Chelsea in this all-blue encounter. It was a massive performance by the David Moyes' men, and a wholly deserved one.
 
Man Utd: Foster, Rafael Da Silva, Ferdinand, Vidic, Fabio Da Silva (Evra 63), Welbeck, Gibson, Anderson, Park (Scholes 67), Tevez, Macheda (Berbatov 91).
 
Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines, Osman, Neville, Fellaini (Vaughan 102), Pienaar, Cahill, Saha (Rodwell 70).