Demba Ba’s sublime finish helped the Blues edge past United, who can now solely focus on winning back the Premiership from Manchester City after missing out on a cup double. Chelsea, however, book a date with Manchester City at Wembley in the semi-finals and are still vying for continental triumph in the Europa League too.

Much of the pre-match hype focused on the congested fixture schedule, with both teams having to play their second match in less than 48 hours. Chelsea rested several key players during their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Southampton, but United fielded a comparatively stronger side in their 1-0 success at Sunderland.

Van Persie had said pregame that he expected fatigue to play a part in the match, which would explain for a shoddy opening 45 minutes. The only noteworthy incident was De Gea saving a shot at his near post from Ba, and a hamstring injury to Ashely Cole, ruling him out for the next two weeks.

The game sparked to life four minutes into the second half when Ba acrobatically volleyed a clever over-the-top ball from Mata into the back of the net, to give Chelsea a precious lead.

United started dominating the affair with Hernandez drawing out a super save from Cech to keep the Blues in the lead. However, United were unable to translate their possession into any clear-cut chances and had to be alert on the counter-attack with the pace of Oscar and Hazard.

Van Persie and Giggs joined the fray, but it was Hazard who had a golden opportunity to double his side’s lead but scuffed his shot when through on goal. Persie than had his chance to score in the dying minutes but uncharacteristically volleyed over the ball from Evra’s cut-back.

At the post-match press conference, Fergie admitted his side were caught napping at the back. According to Metro.co.uk, he said, “We were comfortable in the first half and I couldn’t see them getting into the game or being any great threat to us. But the goal, as it always does, changed the game.”

“We spoke about Ba and the experience we had with him a couple of years ago at Newcastle when he scored exactly the same type of goal. We were caught napping, to be honest. It wasn’t a good start for us right at the beginning of the second half.”

He also admitted that his side lacked composure in front of goal and couldn’t see them scoring. He said, “After that [Ba’s goal] I think we lacked the composure to win the game and create proper openings. We had a lot of possession but didn’t make the best use of it and they caused us quite a few problems on the counter-attack. Fortunately we didn’t lose another goal, but I couldn’t really see us scoring either.”

So Chelsea will meet Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final and the Blues face Rubin Kazan in the Europa League so Benitez looks like may still yet leave the Chelsea faithful with a trophy to remember him by. Chelsea still also have to face Manchester United in the league which could be a spicy affair considering today’ result. We shall see…