For 77 minutes at Old Trafford, Manchester United’s Carabao Cup celebrations threatened to come back and bite them on the backside.
There was a little too much back-slapping going on here. Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes paraded the first trophy of the Eric ten Hag era on the pitch before kick-off, and Sir Alex Ferguson popped up again to present David de Gea with an award for breaking Peter Schmeichel’s clean sheet record in Sunday’s victory over Newcastle at Wembley.
Then West Ham began to rain on United’s parade. Said Benrahma scored with an excellent strike early in the second half and David Moyes’s side could have been out of sight had they taken their chances. De Gea twice saved one-on-one from Michail Antonio.
But this is a United team that has forgotten how to lose. One rich in courage and character. A goal down to Barcelona here a week ago, they came back to win. A goal down here, they did it again with a 90th minute winner from teenager Alejandro Garnacho and an injury-time effort from Fred on a night West Ham defender Nayef Aguerd will want to forget.
United will now face Fulham in the FA Cup quarter-finals feeling supremely confident of going back to Wembley in the semis next month. Ten Hag scoffs at talk of a Quadruple but would anyone write off United at the moment?
Like all great teams, they have found a way of winning even when they aren’t at their best. This was a triumph for sheer bloody-mindedness.
‘The belief is so strong, the resilience is so strong, they hate losing,’ said Ten Hag.
‘We showed that we can that we have the character to deal with difficult situations. This team is composed and doesn’t show panic. It was a massive performance from our team in way of mentality.’
Having made six changes – three days after Wembley and four days before United go to Anfield – Ten Hag had to send for the cavalry.
Without Casemiro’s presence in the starting line-up, Marcus Rashford’s penetration and the safety blanket provided by Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, United simply aren’t the same.
West Ham sensed as much and had the better of the first half after absorbing early pressure.
Their best chance arrived in the 23rd minute when Benrahma split Maguire and Victor Lindelof with a superb throughball that sent Antonio galloping clear but De Gea stood strong and blocked.
Ten Hag knew that changes were needed and cut short Casemiro’s rest period at half-time. The Brazilian made an immediate impact but was unable to stop West Ham scoring in the 54th minute.
Casemiro seemed to have Tomas Soucek hemmed in on the United right, and the Czech dragged the ball onto the touchline but, crucially, not quite over it according to the match officials. Not if you take into account the curvature of the ball, a debate we remember well from Japan’s game against Spain at the World Cup.
Either way, playing to the whistle has always been the golden rule. Casemiro did but Diogo Dalot didn’t as Soucek smuggled the ball to Emerson Palmieri and he passed it to Benrahma. The Algerian took one touch and let fly as his shot arrowed into the top corner with even De Gea powerless to stop it.
Ten Hag then summoned Rashford and Martinez off the bench but the Hammers had the scent of blood. Pablo Fornals fired inches wide of the far post and De Gea had to come out and save one-on-one from Antonio again.
They knew what was coming though. Casemiro thought he had equalised in the 74th minute when he headed in from a free kick, just as he did at Wembley. This time, however, the VAR review was not in his favour and it was ruled out for offside.
There was no reprieve for West Ham three minutes later. Fernandes delivered again from a corner on the left and Aguerd rose to meet it under pressure from Wout Weghorst and Maguire, and headed into his own net.
West Ham thought they had earned extra-time at least and were so close to it. In the 90th minute, Aguerd blocked Fernandes’ pass and Weghorst’s follow-up shot. The ball ran for Garnacho on the edge of the box and he knew just what to do. The teenager curled an exquisite shot beyond Alphonse Areola and into the bottom corner.
Five minutes later it really was all over. The hapless Aguerd miscontrolled Rashford’s cross from the right and Fred stole in to sidefoot home.
United’s fifth FA Cup victory over West Ham since that famous Paolo Di Canio winner here in 2001 felt like a bitter pill to swallow.
‘I thought the worst was we’d go to extra time but we ended up giving away two ridiculous goals,’ said Moyes. ‘We had a great opportunity to go through and we blew it.’
SOURCE: dailymail.co.uk
