When Rasmus Hojlund struck the winning penalty that eventually sent Manchester United stumbling and fumbling like drunks in the dark into an FA Cup final, half of his team-mates didn’t even feel as though it was appropriate to celebrate.
Instead, Harry Maguire and others turned to commiserate with the Coventry players struck down with disappointment in the centre circle. An act of generous sporting spirit, for sure, but also a clear signal of what this was. Victory in name only.
The glory and the honour here at Wembley goes to Coventry. Down and out at 0-3 after being outplayed and dominated by their Premier League opponents, Coventry’s comeback to take this semi-final into extra-time and on to penalties was perhaps the greatest and most remarkable Wembley has ever seen.
Goals from Ellis Simms, a deflected shot from Callum O’Hare and then a penalty scored by the magnificent Haji Wright in the 93rd minute reduced Erik ten Hag’s United team to an incompetent rabble. From that point on, Coventry could have won it and indeed in the very last minute of extra time, they thought they had.
Wright broke on final time down the left and crossed low for Victor Torp to poke the ball in. The greatest turnaround perhaps of all time was complete, or so we thought. Coventry fans cried tears of joy as United’s wretched troops lay flat out on the field.
Rasmus Hojlund scored the decisive penalty to send Man United into the final of the FA Cup
The Dane fired past Bradley Collins to set up a repeat of last year’s final against Man City
Ben Sheaf skipper Ben Sheaf skied his penalty over the bar to hand Man United a chance to win the game
Andre Onana saved Callum O’Hare’s spot kick to hand the advantage back to the Red Devils
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VAR saved United, though. Wright had been offside by about an inch. That was how close Coventry came to a final with Manchester City back here next month. That was how close Ten Hag came to the ultimate indignity. Would United’s haplessly doomed manager have survived the week? It’s doubtful.
As it was, United survived and even managed to withstand a calamitous start to the shoot out as Casemiro popped a hopelessly misguided Panenka straight at Coventry goalkeeper Bradley Collins. Coventry then scored their first two to leave the supporters at the United end paralysed and mute.
But O’Hare and then captain Ben Sheaf failed for the Championship team – the first saved by Andre Onana and the second blazed over – as Diogo Dalot, Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes and then Hojlund scored to send United to the final.
The chances are they will suffer only pain when they get there. Manchester City will be waiting. For now, at least, calamity and the ultimate embarrassment has somehow been avoided. How it all came to this after Scott McTominay and Maguire scored in a first half they owned and Fernandes added a third on the hour, perhaps only they will know. There is something deeply wrong with Ten Hag’s United team and this three hours of almost unspeakable drama only served to underline that in bold.
Coventry, of course, had worked so hard to get here. Not just this season but in the years of struggle that came before it. Up through the pyramid, all the while teetering on the financial brink, sometimes playing home games at stadiums that were not their own.
For a while it looked as though manager Mark Robins and his players would leave here having not made even a footprint on the game. The first half was utterly one-sided. Indeed for long periods Robins wore a look of perpetual disappointment in the technical area. This looked destined to be an opportunity not taken, a battle never really fought and, therefore, an occasion that must have been so desperately hard enjoy.
But then it changed. Somehow and quite incredibly it changed. In about 20 minutes – from minute 71 to 93 – Coventry turned their afternoon from one of some kind of quite acceptance of inferiority in to one of the most incredible comebacks our game – never mind this stadium – has ever seen.
And is what was so stunning about it. There was absolutely no sign of it until it arrived. There was no steady build up of pressure, no gradual shift in momentum. It was just one shot – and one goal – from Simms.
Scott McTominay tapped in from close range to get the goalscoring underway at Wembley
Harry Maguire rose above the Coventry defence to head home the Premier League side’s second
Bruno Fernandes gave United what looked to be an unassailable 3-0 lead just before the hour
Ellis Simms (right) pulled a goal back for the Championship side to spark dreams of a recovery
As Coventry were imbued with a little hope – and at 3-1 down that was all it was – United panicked and pretty much fell to pieces. In the directors’ box, United’s new minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe sat having earlier finished the London Marathon. By the end of normal time, he looked increasingly as though he needed a little time on the massage table.
Back at the start of the game United had been on the front foot from the outset and were particularly dangerous down the left. They were for so long in cruise control. Marcus Rashford – later booed off by a section of his own supporters – seemed up for the occasion and could have scored in the 19th minute as he controlled a sweeping Casemiro pass well only to shoot across goal and wide from an angle. By then, Alejandro Garnacho had already missed a better chance, failing to connect properly after Fernandes nodded a high ball into his path on the angle of the six-yard box.
Coventry’s plan at this stage was clear, to sit deep and absorb pressure with the aim of striking on the break. That was all very well but they seemed reluctant to engage with United at all when Ten Hag’s team had the ball in their own half. That was strange given that teams who have pressed high against United this season have invariably found that after a while they give it away.
For a while Coventry lived on their wits and their endeavour and there was no lack of the latter. But it always seemed inevitable that United would score and they did so very simply win the 23rd minute as Diogo Dalot collected the ball on a right-sided overlap and crossed low for McTominay to score at the far post from close range.
At this stage Coventry hadn’t managed a shot on goal and not until the 40th minute did they threaten at all as Josh Eccles burst through to cross low from the right. Dalot’s interception seemed important at the time but seemed even more so when, on the stroke of half-time, Maguire headed in from a corner unmarked after a superb Rashford shot had brought a save from Bradley Collins.
Coventry had been outplayed in every way in the opening period and despite a change of shape and attitude after half-time there was absolutely no hint of the late drama to come when United broke from their own half to score just before the hour. Garnacho scampered down the right and played the ball infield to Fernandes who moved it on to Rashford on the other flank. The danger was clear but seemed to have passed when Rashford was tackled in the penalty area. Fernandes had carried on running in support, though, and when he turned and shot hopefully from an angle, the ball struck Coventry’s Bobby Thomas and ended up in the net.
Coventry fans were in full voice for much of the game and were given something to celebrate after Simms’ strike
Callum O’Hare’s wayward effort deflected off the back of a United defender and lopped over Andre Onana into the Red Devils goal
Haji Wright calmly slotted his 95th minute penalty past Onana to draw the Championship side level
Coventry boss Mark Robins was the coolest man in the building during his team’s surge
That seemed as though that was the end it for Coventry. No way back. But this United team does not deal well with setbacks of any nature and when Simms struck out of the blue, volleying in a low cross from the right with his shin in the 71st minute then the whole game – the whole afternoon – just changed.
It was a good goal and a moment to cherish for the Coventry fans. But it should have been no more than that. United, though, immediately fell into retreat mode and when Coventry’s O’Hare struck a shot from 25 yards that struck the back of Aaron Wan Bisssaka and looped in to the goal eight minutes later, Ten Hag’s team were in real trouble.
United looked like the Championship side now. No shape, no composure, no leaders to help them reimpose authority long since lost. For a while it seemed as though their goalkeeper would save them from the embarrassment of extra-time as Onana leaped up high to his left to beat away a vicious 20-yard shot from substitute Victor Torp that seemed destined for the top corner.
Inexplicably, though, there was more drama. More than three minutes in to added time, a cross from the left reached another substitute Luis Binks at the far post and as he diverted back towards goal it struck Wan Bissaka on the arm. It was a clear penalty under the modern interpretation of the rules and Wright struck the penalty calmly with his right foot to send Onana the wrong way.
United were mentally in pieces as Coventry tried to win the game before extra-time and complete possibly the most extraordinary Wembley story of all time. United survived though and were granted an extra half an hour to somehow save their manager from his darkest hour.
Erik ten Hag and his side were left stunned by the remarkable recovery of the Championship outfit
Sir Jim Ratcliffe (right) had raced back from the London Marathon to join majority owner Avram Glazer (left) at Wembley for the game
Victor Torp thought he had given Coventry a winner at the end of extra-time but the goal was disallowed for an offside in the build-up
Onana (right) save one of Coventry’s penalties before seeing another fly high over his bar
As if often the case, the first half of the extra period reeked a little of fatigue. Fernandes struck the underside of the bar from 18 yards after a pull back from substitute Amad Diallo while a couple of Coventry breaks lacked a final pass to open up a United defence that now had vulnerability written right through it.
This, though, was the game that refused to die and with eight minutes to go and with penalties looming, Robins’ team went end to end only for Wright to shoot across goal and wide with his left foot. Perhaps – and despite the tiredness he must have been feeling – he should just have done a little better. Incredibly, that was not the closest Coventry came to winning it. Not even close. In the 116th minute, Wright held up play in the penalty area and when Simms took control of the ball he turned two United defenders far too easily and smashed a right foot shot off the underside of the bar and down on to the goal line. Did Onana in the United goal get a finger tip to it? Maybe, just maybe.
Onan was helpless deep in to the 121st minute when Torp prodded Wright’s low cross in to the goal to spark delirium in the sky blue ranks. Coventry thought they had won it, United thought it was over too. In the posh seats near the press box, a man and his two young sons – here supporting Coventry – wept tears of joy. The VAR system was to put paid to all that and United were offered one final chance at salvation. Somehow and almost despite themselves they managed to take it.
