Wise, who has won The Cup three times in his career, was philosophical after the match.

He said: "We had a lot of youngsters out there and I told them they should be proud of themselves.

"They've done fantastically well and if it had been 0-0 at half-time it might have been a different game."

Assistant manager Ray Wilkins, who won The Cup with Manchester United in 1983, added: "They will learn from this and I hope these young men will experience this again."

United's first goal, a header from the outstanding Cristiano Ronaldo, was important in context of the match as it gave United a lift just before the half-time break.

"The first goal killed us. We made a mistake and mistakes get punished against these people," he said.

"It was a sloppy goal and maybe the result of some wrong information from Neil Harris, which I'm not happy about.

"The second goal was maybe not a penalty and the third was offside but we gave it a go although it would have been better if we had gone in 0-0 at half-time."