Most of Man United’s players seemed embarrassed to celebrate advancing to their second FA Cup final in as many years, and with good reason too, as Coventry channelled their 2005 Liverpool and almost pulled out one of the most mind-boggling turnarounds the historic competition has ever witnessed.
Leading 3-0 heading into the final 20 minutes, Erik ten Hag’s men nearly threw it all away as their Championship counterparts unbelievably forced extra time, where Victor Torp thought he had etched his name into Sky Blues folklore with a last-gasp winning goal in front of the bewildered Red Devils faithful.
However, Coventry’s delirium was cruelly cut short by a tight offside call, and Ten Hag’s men managed to hold their nerve from the penalty spot to set up a repeat of last year’s final with Manchester City, but Man United were chastised as if they had lost the semi-final.
Now without a 90-minute win in six matches, Ten Hag’s jaded troops also have several Premier League wrongs to right on Wednesday, having gone without a single victory in their last four matches to all but kill off their Champions League hopes, lying seventh in the table and 16 points off the top four with 18 left to play for.
A far cry from the defensive powerhouses during Ten Hag’s debut campaign, Man United enter the midweek battle having shipped an alarming 11 goals in their last four games – not to mention their incessant concession of shots to the opposition – but their upcoming visitors are hardly renowned for their rearguard excellence either.
undesired Premier League first was achieved by Sheffield United during the weekend’s bottom-of-the-table battle with Burnley at Bramall Lane, where victory was seen as imperative if Chris Wilder’s side were to spark a miraculous escape from the Premier League’s drop zone.
Burnley had only acquired four more points than Sheffield United throughout the entire campaign, but they appropriately hit the Blades for four in Sheffield, where Lorenz Assignon, Lyle Foster, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Jacob Bruun Larsen contributed to the rout that saw Wilder’s men become the first Premier League team to let in 50 goals at home in a single season.
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Gustavo Hamer’s fine finish briefly gave Sheffield United hope, but the Clarets quickly extinguished it to leave their hosts on the brink of a swift return to second-tier football; the Blades are now 10 points adrift of safety with just five games left on the calendar.
A trip to Newcastle United and home fixture versus Tottenham Hotspur also await for Wilder’s men, although they may very well have been consigned to the drop by the time they host the latter on the final gameweek, and it is now nine matches without a win for the basement dwellers.
If there is one saving grace for Sheffield United fans to cling onto, it is that their side achieved a magnificent 2-1 win at the Theatre of Dreams in January 2021, and while the Red Devils prevailed by that same scoreline at Bramall Lane earlier this season, it was not convincing by any stretch.
