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Louis van Gaal insists an FA Cup triumph would represent a successful season for Manchester United even if they fail to qualify for the Champions League.

Eleven-times winners United have not won the Cup since 2004 and are favourites ahead of their first semi-final in five years against Everton at Wembley on Saturday.

Success in the competition is unlikely to reprieve Van Gaal if he does not manage United to another top four finish, with his future understood to hinge on Champions League qualification.

Champions League and Europa League glory for semi-finalists City and Liverpool could deny United qualification even should they finish fourth, and Van Gaal is acutely aware that the club's priority is an acceptable Premier League finish.

"I think it is always a success when you win the title," Van Gaal said when asked if an FA Cup win would offset a fifth-place finish.

"But for the club it is more important, I have said that already a lot of times, it is more important to qualify for the Champions League, because we have to show ourselves at the highest level. And that was also our aim.

"I think always when you win a title it brings again something where Manchester United stands for. We have had a period of a lot of titles and we want to bring it back and when you win the FA Cup you have a title and a very respectable title in England more than other countries."

United's opponents, Everton, are in disarray. The Toffees are winless in six and languishing in 11th in the Premier League table after they were hammered 4-0 by Liverpool in Wednesday's Merseyside derby.

Despite that setback, Van Gaal believes the magnitude of a Wembley occasion will make Roberto Martinez's side tough to beat.

"In the Netherlands and also in Spain the cup is not so highly valued," he explained.

"In Germany, it is also a fixed stadium in Berlin and they make a big event of it so I like the way the Germans did it and I expect here it is much bigger, and when I see the people on the streets they are so excited, so you can feel already for the fans it is fantastic.

"But we are only in the semi-final and not in the final, and I want to speak about Everton because it is not a piece of cake."

Van Gaal remembers watching FA Cup finals in his homeland as a youngster but refused to cite which finals specifically.

"In the day that I was young there was not much football on television and the only game on our television was the Cup final," he added.

"One Saturday in a year, because I was football-minded, I was looking to the Cup final, it has a big memory for me.

"I'm not living in the past, I'm living in the present. I don't remember too much of my childhood and something like that, and I don't pay too much attention for the past, always what is coming, I'm still young enough to see my future."