Manchester United have reached the FA Cup final thanks to a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley.
The cup is Jose Mourinho's only chance of silverware this season and the United boss will be delighted with his team's performance.
They secured their place in the final thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez and Ander Herrera and clearly learned lessons from the 2-0 defeat against Mauricio Pochettino's in the Premier League fixture in January.
Mourinho made five changes to the side that beat Bournemouth in the week with Nemanja Matic and Antonio Valencia among the players who returned to the side. Romelu Lukaku and Sanchez also got the nod in the starting line-up.
Paul Pogba was also in the starting XI after his display against Bournemouth but Luke Shaw dropped out of the matchday 18, with Ashley Young preferred at left-back by Mourinho.
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FA Cup team news: United v Tottenham
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has made five changes to the side that beat Bournemouth 2-0 for the Emirates FA Cup semi-final clash with Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley.
The selection means that Phil Jones will play his first back-to-back matches in the centre of defence since mid-January, when he played against Stoke City and Burnley. Eric Bailly, who was an unused sub at Bournemouth, is not in the 18 on duty in the capital.
After being rested at the Vitality Stadium on Wednesday, there are returns for 27-goal Romelu Lukaku with Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez partnering him again. Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial had to be content with places on the bench.
Alexis has a remarkable Wembley goalscoring record: he netted two this season for Chile against England and has also bagged three in FA Cup semi-finals for Arsenal, as well as a cup final goal for the Gunners. But it cut no ice with Mourinho.
"I didn’t think about it (Alexis’s good record at Wembley when picking the starting XI)," said the boss. "I just thought about what I think is the best for the team.
"We had a game against Bournemouth that was important to win after a defeat, to almost secure the top four, which is obviously the compulsory objective for the season. Now we have a different game two days after; Tottenham had three days. Even so, they’ve rested players. We had to do the same."
Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia are also back as Mourinho’s full-backs at Wembley, with Wednesday’s duo Matteo Darmian and Luke Shaw stepping down. In midfield, Nemanja Matic returns after a rest on the south coast and it means a sub spot for Marouane Fellaini.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino has made six changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday night.
United: De Gea; Valencia (c), Jones, Smalling, Young; Matic, Herrera, Pogba; Lingard, Alexis, Lukaku. Subs: J. Pereira, Darmian, Lindelof, Fellaini, Mata, Martial, Rashford.
Tottenham: Vorm, Trippier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies, Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Dele, Son, Kane (c). Subs: Lloris, Aurier, Alderweireld, Wanyama, Sissoko, Lamela, Lucas.
Over recent weeks, Mauricio Pochettino has relentlessly played down the importance of the FA Cup to the overarching ambitions of his Tottenham Hotspur team, and as the last prospect of a trophy this season duly expired it seemed his players had taken him at his word.
This was the eighth consecutive FA Cup semi-final that Spurs have lost and while Pochettino can only take responsibility for the last two, there were echoes of the defeat to Chelsea last year when they took the lead before being reeled in by an opponent who knows how to win big games. Jose Mourinho’s side are far from the force their manager sometimes prefers to imagine them, yet there is a tenacity about his team that reflects his own cussedness when it comes to the trophies.
Having transformed Spurs into regular Champions League contenders, and with fourth place this season well within his grasp, Pochettino’s achievements are considerable but they will not be measured in silver until next year at the earliest. After the game he was relentlessly optimistic, claiming that he needed more time, and then hinting that the minimal net spend Spurs have invested in their squad will always make it difficult to compete with the big guns.
“The most difficult thing in football is to be realistic because no-one wants to be realistic,” Pochettino lamented, and he is right of course but while Mourinho has spent much more money on his side it is not as if United are unbeatable. They have struck some indifferent form of their own in recent weeks, a team that can change its character from one game to the next, from one half to the next, and yet they always looked like they could control this game once they got ahead.
