Sir Alex Ferguson's men remain in the hunt for five trophies this season, including the Club World Cup they had already won in December, after Foster saved from Jamie O'Hara in the shoot-out following 120 goalless minutes.David Bentley also went wide with his penalty, and Anderson tucked away the winning spot-kick.

Afterwards, Ferguson told Sky Sports: "They took their penalties very confidently. Ben Foster did a fantastic save and that gave us a big lift."

The United manager admitted he would have preferred to win the match in normal time as United continue to pursue an unprecedented quintuple.

"We could have done without extra time to be honest and I suppose Tottenham will be saying the same.

"There'll be some tired legs and I need them to freshen up.

"The league's a priority and the Champions League as well."

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp praised his players and urged them to get over their disappointment quickly ahead of the crucial league game at Middlesbrough next week

"I thought we were super," he said. "It was a great performance and it came down to a lottery in the end.

"I have to be honest, we were not that confident with our penalty takers really and you looked over there and they had very confident penalty takers.

"But overall they couldn't beat us in 90 minutes plus extra time so we didn't deserve to lose and I thought we were fantastic."

(Soccer365.com)