Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic says his side gave their all this season but ultimately fell short to ‘amazing’ Manchester City.
The Reds ended the season trophy-less having come up short in the weekend’s FA Cup final against Chelsea, an Eden Hazard goal proving enough to secure a 1-0 victory for the Blues at Wembley.
United also finished second in the Premier League – however were a huge 19 points behind winners City, who reached a record 100 points on the last day with their win over Southampton.
And Matic, who joined United last summer from Chelsea, says it is not down to a lack of effort that Jose Mourinho’s side fell-short this season, but more so the strength of the opposition in both City and Chelsea.
“When you don’t win one year, the next year there is always more pressure. This is football. When you play for Manchester United, it is a normal thing and we have to accept that and deal with that,” said Matic.
FT: Chelsea 1 #MUFC 0.
The Reds miss out on this year's #EmiratesFACup. pic.twitter.com/d6e6V6KG7R
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 19, 2018
“When you win the trophy it’s different and you feel better but the most important thing is that we can look in the mirror and know we gave our best. The team was sad after the game. We know we deserved more but this is football. This is a final – everything can happen – so as I said we have to be focused on the next challenge.
“I think that we have improved this year. As you know, United last year were sixth. The year before that, fifth. So we improve, we are second. The only team who is better than us this year is Man City.
“Obviously, they play amazing football. But we are second and we are in the Champions League next year, which is the most important thing.
“As you saw in the game (the cup final), we tried to play – we played good football – but Chelsea have some players that can punish every mistake, like (Eden) Hazard did, so we have to accept to see where we can improve and next year to try and win some trophies.
“We gave our best and this is the most important thing. The problem is if you feel you didn’t give your best and lose the game but we gave our best. We tried everything but we have to accept it.”