MANCHESTER (March 19) — In a dramatic FA Cup quarter-final match at Old Trafford on Sunday, Manchester United defeated nine-man Fulham 3-1 in front of a crowd of 73,511 fans. The win secured a place for United in the semi-final against Brighton.
Fulham took the lead in the 50th minute through a goal by Aleksandar Mitrovic, who tapped in after a clever flick from Issa Diop following a corner. However, the game turned on its head just over 20 minutes later.
Jadon Sancho’s shot was handled on the line by Willian, resulting in a penalty to United and a red card for the Brazilian winger. Mitrovic then pushed referee Chris Kavanagh and was also shown a red card, leaving Fulham with nine men. In the midst of that, Kavanagh also sent off Fulham manager Marco Silva for arguing against the decision when the referee walked over to view the incident on the pitchside monitor.
“In that moment I shouldn’t be sent off. I don’t want that to happen. It’s my place to be there,” said Silva speaking to ITV Sport. “If you ask me if I did something I’m happy with, of course not.
“But if you ask me if that it should be a red card, I have big doubts. I would like to know what the referee is going to write about what I said to him.”
Bruno Fernandes stepped up to convert from the spot, bringing the home side level and United quickly took advantage of their two-man advantage, with Marcel Sabitzer scoring in the 77th minute after a low cross from Luke Shaw.
Fernandes then sealed the victory for the Erik ten Hag’s side in stoppage time with a powerful strike into the far corner.
The victory earned Manchester United a semi-final spoke against Brighton, which has smashed Grimsby 5-0 in an earlier quarter-final match on the day.
Marcel Sabitzer told ITV Sport: “We won it. We scored three, they scored one. We were concentrated and focused until the end and it was as deserved win. We missed chances but we came back and that was the important thing.”
The conduct of Mitrovic was unprofessional, and he let his team down badly with his actions. Fulham’s meltdown saw them lose their lead and ended the game with nine men on the pitch, ultimately missing out on a potential chance to progress to Wembley.
