Despite leading 3-0 till the 70th minute, Manchester United needed a penalty shoot-out to scrape past Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-finals on Sunday.
Andre Onana saved one while another was blazed over before Rasmus Hojlund stepped up to convert the last spot-kick to send the Red Devils through to back-to-back FA Cup finals where they will again face Manchester City.
After captain Bruno Fernandes scored the third, manager Erik ten Hag decided it would be a good time to rest his most effective duo – Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo. And his subs actually changed the course of the game.
Bringing on the ineffective Antony and rusty Christian Eriksen led to the Red Devils struggling to hold on to the ball while huffing and puffing while out of possession and it led to the Championship side gaining in confidence.
Onana time wasting and first yellow
Things got so tense after the Sky Blues grabbed two goals back that goalkeeper Andre Onana resorted to wasting time while taking goal-kicks.
Referee Robert Jones proceeded to show the Cameroonian a yellow card and in added time, Coventry ended up equalising from the spot after Aaron Wan-Bissaka was harshly penalised for handball.
Mark Robins’ side almost grabbed a memorable winner in extra-time only for VAR to rule it out for off-side. And then Onana stepped up to save Callum O’Hare’s spot-kick before putting off Ben Sheaf who blazed his effort over the bar.
Coventry fans might not be too happy with the United shot-stopper who was shown his second yellow of the day while playing mind-games with Sheaf.
But as recently seen during Aston Villa’s victory over Lille on penalties in Europe, a player cannot be sent off for receiving another yellow during penalties.
Leave a Reply