Manchester United came from a goal down to overcome nine-man Fulham to advance to the semifinals of the FA cup with a 3-1 win.
It was a dramatic come back as the hosts capitalized on the numerical advantage to beat Cottagers.
The game kicked off with Fulham on the front foot forcing David De Gea to tip Adarabioyo Diop’s looping header over the bar for a fruitless corner kick with two minutes into the game.
Both teams battled for possession as they tried to attack but they were goal shy .
Marcus Rashford tried to make things happen with a solo run on the left flank before passing for Wout Weghorst whose shot was no strong enough to trouble Leno.
Rashford was again involved in another build up, but Weghorst could not get at the end of his curling in-swinger as it sailed across the goal in the 25th minute. The in-form forward then went through, but Leno was at his best to keep out his close range effort nine minutes later.
Mercel Sabitzer came close to grabbing the opener but his long range effort was parried by Leno before getting back to his feet to thwart the rebound in the 39th minute as the hosts searched for a breakthrough.
Tete also attempted to to beat De Gea with a long range effort, but it went wide at the stroke of halftime as the scoreline remained goalless .
After the interval, the hosts came back strongly forcing De Gea into a magnificent save tipping a superb effort over the bar from a corner kick. It’s from the resultant corner kick delivery that De Gea had to make an acrobatic save to deny the Brazilian midfielder’s curling effort which he thwarted with his finger tips shortly after the break.
Mitrovic then scored from the resultant corner kick in the 50th minute to put the visitors in the lead as the game opened up on both ends.
Both sides created more chances but they were not clinical enough which prompted Erik Ten hag to make substitutions bringing on Antony to bolster the attack.
With 20 minutes remaining on the clock, drama ensued following Jadon Sancho’s individual brilliance when he was put through on the counter attack before racing clear on goal to round up Leno, but his effort into the empty net got intercepted by on rushing Willian who thwarted it with his elbow.
The referee who had to review the incident using the VAR awarded the penalty to the hosts which raised violent protests from Mitrovic prompting the referee to dish out a red card to the Serbian Striker before sending off Willian for the handball offense.
The Red Devils’s skipper Bruno Fernandez made no mistake from the penalty spot to level the score with his trademark penalty sending Leno the wrong way in the 74th minute.
Two minutes later, Sabitzer put the home side into the lead following Sancho’s pass to Luke Shaw who teed up the Austrian midfielder to score from close range, sending the home faithfuls into a frenzy.
The skipper wrapped up the win scoring his second goal with a thunderous effort to put the game beyond the visitors’ reach as Man United progressed to the semi finals and book a date against Premier League side Brighton.
