• FA Cup

Liverpool must be semi-final favourites - Moyes

Everton edged past Sunderland on Tuesday © Getty Images

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Everton manager David Moyes has conceded that arch-rivals Liverpool must be considered favourites when the two sides meet at Wembley for their FA Cup final.

In a weekend of enticing derby encounters - Tottenham face Chelsea in the other semi-final - Everton will be looking to reach the FA Cup final for the first time since they lost to the Blues at Wembley in 2009.

However, having lost to the Reds in both their Premier League encounters to date this season, Moyes acknowledges that his side will go into the game as underdogs.

"Liverpool will be favourites. They have beaten us twice this year, haven't they?" Moyes said. "They have to go into the game as favourites, and we will go there and play."

The long-serving Toffees boss is delighted to have reached another cup semi-final, but admits it is finals and trophies that he really covets.

"I think anybody would think going to a semi-final would be an achievement, whether you have been there one year or 10 years," he said. "But the thing about Everton is they have got a history of being in finals, semi-finals, winning things.

"I have not been in as many as I would like to be, but I actually think there are mitigating circumstances for that in a way.

"But Everton as a football club are used to it, it's been there many times before and this isn't a strange place for them."

The Merseyside club beat Sunderland 2-0 in a replay at the Stadium of Light to progress to the last four of the competition, and Martin O'Neill admitted his side had been outclassed on the night.

"Everton were better than us. They deserved to win the game. We didn't perform well enough - we didn't perform at all, and that's really disappointing," O'Neill said. "We were ready for the night and to see the sort of atmosphere just before kick-off, the noise level, was something we should experience more often here at the Stadium of Light.

"It was a great evening, a great night for football and we disappointed."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.