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MANCHESTER UNITED WILL face arch-rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup final after beating Brighton 7-6 on penalties in Sunday’s semi-final.
Erik ten Hag’s side played out a hard-fought 0-0 draw with Brighton that went to extra-time at Wembley.
Solly March was the only Brighton player to miss in the shoot-out, with Victor Lindelof netting United’s winner from the spot.
It will be United’s first FA Cup final appearance since losing to Chelsea in the 2018 showpiece.
United will take on City, who beat Sheffield United 3-0 in Saturday’s other semi-final, in the final on 3 June.
Neither side showing the cutting edge required to break the deadlock here.
Ten Hag made three changes from his team’s Europa League horror show in Sevilla in midweek.
Luke Shaw came in at centre-back for the suspended Harry Maguire, with Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes replacing Jadon Sancho and Marcel Sabitzer.
United have already won League Cup this season to end a six-year trophy drought and are in a strong position to finish in the top four of the Premier League.
But their confidence took a battering in Thursday’s 3-0 defeat in Spain, which meant a 5-2 defeat on aggregate in the Europa League quarter-finals.
Brighton, who lost the FA Cup final replay to United 40 years ago, had won the past two league fixtures between the sides and came to Wembley on a high after beating Chelsea last week.
The south-coast club settled first and had an early sight of goal when Kaoru Mitoma was brought down clumsily on the edge of the box by Antony in the sixth minute.
Argentine World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister hit a fine curling effort that David De Gea did well to keep out before Julio Enciso flashed a shot wide.
Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton were dominating possession, with United apparently happy to sit back and try to exploit the pace of Rashford and Antony.
Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez beat out a Bruno Fernandes effort in United’s first meaningful effort.
The massed ranks of Brighton fans were keen to play on the nerves of De Gea whenever the ball landed at his feet following a nightmare game for the Spaniard in Seville.
Paraguay international Enciso shot narrowly wide just after the half hour mark after fine work down the left by the impressive Mitoma.
United, for long periods scrappy, produced a flurry of chances shortly before half-time.
First Fernandes flashed narrowly wide when the unmarked Anthony Martial was begging for the ball in the middle of the box before Martial mishit an attempted chip well over the bar.
Then Rashford picked out Christian Eriksen, whose shot was kicked away by Sanchez.
Brighton were quickly out of the blocks at the start of the second half. Enciso forced De Gea into a smart save before former United forward Danny Welbeck headed over from the resulting corner.
United then carved out a golden chance to take the lead when Rashford was brought down by Enciso in the 64th minute but Fernandes failed to get the ball over the wall.
United were now on top but could not force a breakthrough and the tension ratcheted up as the game entered the last 10 minutes of normal time.
March forced a fine save from De Gea as Brighton poured forward again, seeking a late winner and then he headed over from a corner.
But neither side could break the deadlock and referee Craig Pawson blew for extra-time.
The game became stretched, with half-chances at both ends before Rashford’s deflected shot was turned away by Sanchez as the clock ticked down to the end of the first period of extra time.
By now United had made five changes.
Top-scorer Rashford, who struggled to hit top gear, flashed wide with 10 minutes to go before De Gea cleared following a goalmouth scramble at the other end.
A high-quality shootout took place in front of the massed ranks of the Brighton fans but ultimately the Red Devils held their nerve.
Written by AFP and posted on the42.ie
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To ALL the Mothers out there……. THANKS & WELL DONE, enjoy your day today….. you deserve every card, bunch of flowers, meal out, chocolates,pampering etc 1000 times over!!!!!!!
@Ken Mc Carthy: this isn’t Facebook ken
@Steven: it sure isn’t—- it’s an article, a TINY thumb up to all the wonderful, fantastic Mothers in the world -!!! Get a life…….. if you’re fortunate enough to be able to spend a bit of time with your mother today— Savour it-!!!, don’t waste one more second comparing facesbook, Instagram, WhatsApp… or whatever
@Ken Mc Carthy: Thank you Ken.
@Ken Mc Carthy: this should be every day, this is all another money racket.
@Ken Mc Carthy: Celebrated last night with my sisters and a few glasses of bubbly to celebrate one of the greatest days in Ireland with the biggest NO to this referendum and the government, and all politicians and NGO’s that tried to eradicate Mother’s and Women for our citizens owned constitution.
@Shane O Mac: it’s nice to be appreciated!
@Clare Power: lol….. don’t ‘over-egg’ it Clare—— I’ve no doubt YOU ARE!!!!!
@Ken Mc Carthy: If you are going to ‘over-egg’ it Clare,wait until after Easter when they’ll all be sold off for half price.
@Ken Mc Carthy: You forgot to add an X in your message,Ken. (formerly known as Twitter)
@Ken Mc Carthy: God Ken, you can’t even be nice to someone without a snarkie remark!
@Larry Betts: All eggs bought already Larry…there flying out the shops…its an eggtravaganza
@Clare Power: Don’t shell out too much Clare
@Clare Power: ah Clare….. I was being nice!!!! Hope you and every Mother in Ireland is having a well deserved ball of a time today
Happy mother’s day and thanks to everyone who voted NO-NO
Happy Mother’s Day, congratulations and thank you.
A woman’s place is in the Constitution.
Everyone’s place is in the Constitution. Including father, who is not in any article of the Constitution.
@Brian Lenehan: thank you so much
@Brian Lenehan: A woman’s place is wherever she wants to be!
@Brian Lenehan: And in Dail Eireann.
@Clare Power: Not according to the Constitution, which says her place is in the home, making a sandwich.
@9QRixo8H: men are included in article 45 of the constitution and if you want father mentioned then fight for it, but do not remove WOMEN or MOTHER in order to do it.
@9QRixo8H: That’s if you’re bothered listening to other people telling you what to do!
@silvery moon: I don’t need Woke bs like putting ‘father’ into the constitution when it already says parents and family.
But if it makes you feel less fragile to have Woke words like a woman’s life is within the home making sandwiches then be Woke all you want.
I’m a mother and I’m deeply loved by my children, also I haven’t been erased from the Irish constitution, so double presents all round. To all mothers, biological, foster and adoptive, Happy Mother’s Day to you all.
@Anna Carr (Morrigan_Dubh): And Fathers? Do they deserve a place there?
Brother is not in the Constitution, nor is sister, father, grandfather, and so on. Because we can use simpler language, like parents or family.
Mother is mentioned in relation to two things; abortion and the other is the right to social welfare instead of working.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: men are included in article 45 of the constitution and if you want father mentioned then fight for it, but do not remove WOMEN or MOTHER in order to do it.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: of course they do, but that wasn’t in the proposal
In a wonderful way, Ireland celebrates its mothers two days running.
@Osprey: not being pedantic or taking from your v valid point ….. but you could even say 3 days running( Friday was International Women’s day).
@Alan B: a lovely thumbs up to the fantastic Mothers of the world & you try to hijack the article with juvenile trolling?
@Osprey: and March 9th was International Dishwasher Day!
@Alan B: Alan? Who da f *ck is Alan?
Well done to everybody who voted No/No, you did your country proud
It’s insane that people are gloating about the result. It might be the result you wanted but we’ve still got some embarrassingly sexist and outdated language in our constitution because the government couldn’t get the wording right. It’s a hollow victory. It’s not a happy event.
Hopefully we can do this again with wording that will help it pass next time. As is, this is a pretty depressing Mother’s Day. We couldn’t even give them equality in the constitution in the last couple of days. We’re stuck with sexist and patriarchal drivel from the last century.
@SerotoninWars: obviously, the only words you chose to see were “duties in the home” and ignored the rest. Maybe read it again a few more times and it might sink in.
@SerotoninWars: Take a day off, you’re a head wrecker.
@SerotoninWars: life is tough.
@SerotoninWars: A bitter pill to swallow, but the government’s fault. As with the rugby yesterday, the winners will have their day and there’s not point in denying them that.
@Brendan O’Brien: no point, even.
@Brendan O’Brien: Thanks for the civil reply. I’m not at all Brendan. I completely get why it was defeated and that the government screwed up royally. It just feels like a strange one to be celebrating when we haven’t made a jot of progress, wasted millions and are left with highly regressive text and ideas in our constitution. If it had been thought through and worded properly it could have been a really happy occasion and another hammer taken to the shackles of the past when we were ruled by the Catholic Church.
@SerotoninWars: THERE IS NOTHING SEXIST OR OUTDATED ABOUT WOMEN AND MOTHER’S
@Brendan O’Brien: The People Have spoken and WOMEN will not be erased in Irish society and as far as I am aware we still live in the Republic of Ireland where it’s citizens are king and politicians are supposed to work for us, well it’s high time they did just that.
@silvery moon: The idea was to erase sexist language: the opposite of erasing women. But the government screwed it up.
To my mother with the angels
Yesterday was for you ❤️
Happy Mothers day Mam
No my mam is longer with me I will lay flowers
Usually makes me sad to have all the ads related to this day displayed for a month, but the article does mention about remembering ones we’ve lost.
It was a nice thing that Deliveroo did a few years ago, letting subscribers opt out of seeing ads if found it to be a hard time. I wish more places would allow that.
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