Fernando Torres believes a repeat of our second-half performance at Old Trafford 22 days ago will be enough to book our place in the FA Cup semi-finals.
The Spaniard was a substitute as we battled back from two goals down against Manchester United to earn this lunchtime’s replay, and was impressed with what he saw from his team-mates.
‘Against Man United it was a great comeback and a great second-half performance,’ said the 29-year-old. ‘We must now approach this game on Monday like it’s the second half of the game, it’s now half-time, and we need the same intensity and spirit that we showed at Old Trafford.
‘There is another game at Wembley waiting and a great team, Manchester City, waiting for us. It’s a difficult route but if we beat Man United and then City, we will deserve to win because we have beaten the best teams in England.
‘The finals are not far away. It is two games to be in the FA Cup final and four games for the Europa League, so let’s go for it.’
Indeed today’s game comes just two days after defeat at Southampton and three days before we entertain Russian side Rubin Kazan in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, with a number of big games to follow as the season approaches its conclusion.
‘This is the final part of the race, we have everything still to play for and it depends on us,’ Torres said. ‘We have the FA Cup replay to go through and then play the semi-final, we have the Europa League and the need to secure a top four position so we can be back in the Champions League next season. We need to be ready.’