Rio Ferdinand believes Manchester United were deserved winners in their Champions League clash with Chelsea.
United following up a 1-0 first-leg victory with a 2-1 success at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, setting up a semi-final showdown with either FC Schalke or Inter Milan.
And Ferdinand has no doubt in his mind that the Red Devils deserve to be in the final four of this season’s competition.
He told Sky Sports: “I thought we were convincingly the better team over the two games.
“We knew Chelsea was going to be a tough game for us. They weren't going to come, lay down and take the result.
“We worked hard. We pressed. We were on the front foot I thought and looked the more likely team to score and we did.
“That takes character and I think we've got that in abundance in this squad.
“We've been in situations where we've needed people to step up and produce something to get us out of a hole.
“They'll have been thinking we'll get at them now for the next 10 minutes (after Didier Drogba’s equaliser on Tuesday night), but we kind of put the game to bed with the next goal straight away.”
And Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech agreed with Ferdinand, telling L’Equipe: “We didn't deserve much more.
“We lost the two games in the quarter-final and that proves Manchester was just better than us and deserved qualification.”
He added: “This is the year to learn from and to pick ourselves up and finish the season strongly, because there is still plenty to play for.
“We want to finish as high as possible in the league. We have to pick ourselves up and get ready for next season. If we win most of the games, we can finish second.”