English giants Manchester United got eliminated from the FA Cup, losing the match against Middlesbrough on penalty shoot-out. The Red Devils lost another opportunity to win a trophy with this loss. However, Manchester United won their last trophy in 2017. Since then, this legendary club hasn’t won a single silverware.
Last night, the EFL Championship side, Middlesbrough, beat the Red Devil at Old Trafford. As a result, they have qualified for the next round of this tournament.
Match Report
After a long break, Manchester United have returned to the action with this match against Middlesbrough. Last night, they welcomed the Championship side at Old Trafford Stadium. It was the 4th round of the FA Cup. However, the Red Devils manager Ralf Rangnick made some changes in the squad. He put Paul Pogba in the starting XI. Pogba was a long absentee as he was injured. Before yesterday, the French international had not played a single match under the new manager, Ralf Rangnick. In addition, last night, Pogba played with Cristiano Ronaldo for the first time in this club.
However, the home team played brilliantly in the first half. They were pushing and pressing the opposition. Manchester United had several chances in the first part. In the 19th minute, Middlesbrough defender Dijksteel fouled Paul Pogba inside the box. As a result, the match referee offered a penalty kick to the home team. Cristiano Ronaldo took the penalty kick, but he missed it.
Five minutes later, the home team took the lead. Jadon Sancho scored a goal in the 25th minute. Midfielder Bruno Fernandez assisted on this goal. Anyway, the first half ended with Man United leading.
The Red Devils conceded a goal in the 64th minute. Middlesbrough midfielder Matt Crooks netted that goal for the visitors. However, the home team couldn’t score more in the remaining minutes. As a result, the match went to the penalty shoot-out, where Manchester United lost by 8-7.
Reaction
The Red Devils manager was disappointed with this defeat. He has had a press briefing after the match. He said,
We’re really disappointed. The players, the staff, everybody. We should have killed the game off in the first half. We could easily have been 3-0 or 4-0 up. We started well and played extremely well in the whole first half. Our movement and tempo of the game were exactly what we intended to do. But it was only 1-0 and a goal like this can always happen, although it shouldn’t have happened, from our perspective, because we didn’t defend well, we were too open in that counter-attacking situation.