Their reward for getting past the Championship side is a trip to Chelsea.
And Mata, who won Chelsea's Player of the Year twice before moving to Old Trafford in 2014, wants United to forget about their last trip to west London.
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Manchester United star Juan Mata is expecting a tough clash against Chelsea
Jose Mourinho's side were thrashed 4-0 by the Premier League leaders back in October.
“We were just leaving Ewood Park when we knew through the social networks our rival in the last eight: Chelsea at Stamford Bridge,” Mata said in his weekly blog.
“Needless to say, it’s going to be another special game for me… This is without a doubt one of the most complicated ties we could have, but we will go there with the big motivation of earning a ticket to Wembley and forget the bad taste of our last visit to Stamford Bridge.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic got the winner against Blackburn to set up the Chelsea clash
“But before that, we have very important games to play.
“This week we are all very excited about the first final of the season. I’m talking about the EFL Cup final that we will play next Sunday at Wembley against Southampton.
“But it’s also true that the next game is always the most important one, we know that, and in our case we have to remain focused on Saint-Etienne and the Europa League.
“We did a great job last week with the 3-0 win, but they proved to be a better team than what the score might say. It would be a big mistake for us to take things for granted.”
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