This was the parent match of all FA Cup matches, and Manchester United ultimately prevailed 4-2 on penalties after an incredibly courageous Coventry City team overcame a 3-0 deficit at the 71st minute to force extra time, which was initiated by a sublime equalizing penalty from Haji Wright in the 95th minute of normal time.
Bradley Collins stopped Casemiro’s first goal in the shootout, and Coventry went up 2-1 thanks to goals from Wright and Victor Torp, who had had a goal disallowed by VAR in the last minute of extra time. The Sky Blues, however, experienced extreme heartbreak as they decided never to register again.
After Christian Eriksen tied the score at two, Andre Onana lunged to block Callum O’Hare’s shot, Bruno Fernandes put United ahead three points ahead, and then Ben Sheaf, the captain of Coventry, agonizingly missed his opportunity.
Rasmus Hojlund was left to lead Erik ten Hag’s struggling team into a second straight Cup final matchup with Manchester City. He succeeded, the strike being clean and to Collins’s left.
Prior to all of this, Ten Hag’s team had been dominating. Just before the hour, Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire had handed United a two-goal advantage at halftime, and the jubilant United supporters chanted, “Bruno, Bruno,” to their captain, signaling the team’s third goal and the end of the semi-final.
However, similar to this Ten Hag era, despite holding a three-goal advantage over the eighth-ranked team in the Championship following a 3-0 thumping by Birmingham, it was insufficient.
The Ten Hag air-punch that met Fernandes’s well-planned goal may have carried extra emotion in his battle to stay in the game. However, Ellis Simms hit the self-destruct button, defeating Onana with a half-volley off his shin.
Unmarked, the Coventry attacker made his move when Onana cleared the ball straight back towards United. Simms met Fabio Tavares’ delivery, who was recently brought on as a substitute, but United was unable to close him down.
Energised, Mark Robins’s team raised the possibility that their manager may put an end to Ten Hag’s 34-year career after his goal against Nottingham Forest in the same competition appeared to have spared the skin of another United No.1, Alex Ferguson.
Those wearing red were repeatedly taken advantage of through a shift. The shot from O’Hare, the No. 10, went off Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s back, over the stranded Onana, and in when Coventry broke and Simms could find him.
People in Sky Blue poured into United, who were in a frenzy. By the 96th minute, Coventry had managed to tie the score. The ball struck Wan-Bissaka’s right arm after Luis Binks, another Robins substitution, swiped at a cross that was beyond Onana’s left post.