Manchester United move into the FA Cup semi-final

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After qualifying for the Europa League quarter-final on Thursday, Manchester United also qualified for the FA Cup semi-final by defeating Fulham this past weekend. Fulham was coming into this game riding a two-game losing streak in the Premier League and would have loved to rebound with a victory over United. While Manchester United was also trying to get back on track after their disappointing draw to last-place Southampton the last time they played at Old Trafford.

The first half provided little excitement, other than the shot Marcel Sabitzer had right to the hands of Bernd Leno just before the half. The second half started in a flash as Fulham had a great chance to take the lead after Willian showed some great skill to cut in and backheel a pass into the path of Antonee Robinson that saw his shot parried over the bar by De Gea. This continued pressure from Fulham got them the lead in the 50th minute when Aleksandar Mitrovic headed home a rebound that squeezed past the first group of people in the box.

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15 minutes later, it was Fulham again sending in a cross from the right side of the pitch that found the head of Mitrovic, but his shot was brilliantly knocked away by the fingertips of David De Gea. With all the pressure Fulham was applying with corner kick after corner kick, one of them allowed Manchester United to break on the counterattack through the feet of Antony. The Brazilian cleverly weighted his through ball to Jadon Sancho, who saw his shot blocked on the goal line by Willian.

That’s where everything unraveled for Fulham because after VAR intervened and the referee had another look at the block, he decided that Willian’s arm was stretched away from his body unnaturally, which had him block that shot. Since it was a goal-line clearance, the referee had no choice but to show Willian a red card for denying an obvious goal. This decision clearly infuriated Fulham and, specifically, Aleksandar Mitrovic, who was also shown a red card for shoving the referee and getting in his face after he reversed his decision. After all that, Bruno Fernandes slotted his penalty past Leno and equalized the game for United.

United, who now had all the momentum, wasted no time to take the lead a minute later. Sancho played Luke Shaw a through ball, and he made no mistake picking his head up and finding Sabitzer right in front of Leno and backheeling Shaw’s cross into the net.

Finally, just two minutes before the end of the game, Fernandes found himself one on one again with Leno and fired his shot past him to stamp the Red Devil’s qualification into the next round.

United was the last team to qualify this past weekend after Manchester City had their way with Burnley, Brighton defeating Grimsby, and Sheffield United moving on after their stoppage-time winner against Blackburn. The semi-finals were predetermined beforehand, so the next round will see Manchester City take on Sheffield United and Brighton squaring off against Manchester United.

With the semi-finals coming in late April, we could be in for a treat if both Manchester clubs move on to the final. Everyone could get a chance to see a trilogy to this matchup after City won the first matchup at the Etihad and United won the most recent game at Old Trafford.