Leading 1-0 in the 75th at Old Trafford, Fulham went completely crazy and were eliminated by Manchester United (3-1) in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup while Brighton put an end to the dream of Grimsby, team of D4 (5-0), Sunday.
The Red Devils have come a long way. Without energy after their qualification on Thursday in Seville in the Europa League, they seemed to be on their way to disillusionment at home against the Cottagers.
The latter, well organized and more on their legs, had opened the scoring on the return from the locker room on a badly shot corner, but deflected by Issa Diop towards the striker Aleksandar Mitrovic who had deceived David de Gea from close (0-1, 50th).
A quarter of an hour later, he had even almost doubled the bet with a header, but the Spanish goalkeeper had relaxed beautifully on his right (65th).
But all it took was a counter-attack favored by a moment of inattention for everything to change.
Antony, who had just come on, played a good two against one by serving Jadon Sancho who dribbled past the goalkeeper, hooked the return of a defender and shot towards the goal but Willian, who came back in disaster, had the wrong reflex to put the hand to prevent the ball from entering.
Flattering score for United blunt
Called on the edge of the sidelines to see the footage, the referee first ruled out coach Marco Silva who protested too vehemently, before confirming a penalty and red card against Willian, which provoked the fury of Mitrovic , also returned to the locker room for having pushed the referee.
Bruno Fernandes kept his cool to take Bernd Leno on the wrong foot and Fulham found themselves at nine (1-1, 75th).
Two minutes later, Manchester drove home the point, Marcel Sabitzer skillfully taking over a tight cross from Luke Shaw low to the ground to give the advantage to his team (2-1, 77th). At the very end of the match, Fernandes added a third goal which gives a flattering air to the result (3-1, 90+5).
United will return to Wembley where they won the League Cup in February and can still dream of a hat-trick with the C3. In the semi-finals, on April 22 or 23, he will face Brighton who dryly beat Tom Thumb of division 4 Grismby Town (5-0).
