(Football news) Following a tense 120 minutes without any goals, Manchester United managed to defeat Brighton 7-6 in the penalty shoot out and will now take on rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup final on June 3rd. Both teams had their share of opportunities as Alexis Mac Allister forced David De Gea into an early fingertip save while Bruno Fernandes and Anthony Martial didn’t capitalise on their opportunities. Julio Encisco was denied by De Gea in the second period while Danny Welbeck nodded wide from a corner. 

In extra time, Marcus Rashford’s effort went past the post while Kaoru Mitoma’s heavy touch denied him a last minute winner. The game then went into a penalty shoot out and each of the first 12 penalties went into the back of the net. Finally, Brighton’s March failed to find the target from the spot while Victor Lindelof found the top right corner, giving Manchester United the opportunity to win their second trophy of the season. 

Speaking after the match, Brighton head coach Roberto De Zerbi said “We deserved to win because we played better and we had more chances to score. We suffered in the middle of the second half but for the other part of the game we commanded the play, we played in the other half of the pitch. Not too many words. I told him I was a player and made a lot of mistakes in penalties and it isn’t a problem. He was one of the best players in terms of quality of performance on the pitch. I’m proud of him, especially [on Sunday].”

Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag said “It was the worst game of the season in Sevilla. You can’t change it anymore but take the lessons for the future. What we’ve proved is we can deal with setbacks and bounce back between games, but now what we have to improve is bouncing back in a game, in difficult situations, in away stadiums, we have to show personality, carry on and stick to the plan. 

“Even if we played a bad game, there was opportunities on Thursday night to bounce back in that game and get back into it. If you can fight three days after a defeat, you can also do that in a game. It’s just controlling your emotions, sticking together and turning around the game. We are physically and mentally strong. We showed the character and personality to do that. I can tell you it’s not so easy but we did it. We were determined to win this game.”

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