English Football
Man United fight back to progress, Spurs and Southampton out
Manchester United fought back to overpower West Ham United 3-1 and reach the FA Cup quarter-finals as Premier League Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton suffered shock defeats on Wednesday.
Three days after they won the League Cup, Manchester United trailed to Said Benrahma’s 54th-minute goal at Old Trafford but an own goal by West Ham’s Nayef Aguerd and late strikes from Alejandro Garnacho and Fred sent the hosts into the last eight.
Manchester manager Erik Ten Hag was delighted with his players.
“The resilience from this team and the belief they’re going to win it was magnificent,” the Dutchman told ITV.
West Ham, who have won only once at Old Trafford in their last 22 visits, took advantage of sloppy defending to open the scoring.
Tomas Soucek kept the ball in play on the left touchline and as Manchester United players appealed for a throw-in, the Czech played the ball to Benrahma who fired a shot past David De Gea into the top corner.
United thought they had equalised when Bruno Fernandes found Casemiro with a pin-point free kick, but his headed effort was disallowed for offside.
Man Utd midfielder Bruno Fernandes
The game looked set for extra time until Argentine forward Garnacho controlled the ball inside West Ham’s penalty area before curling a shot past keeper Alphonse Areola.
Brazilian Fred added a third and the 12-times FA Cup winners advanced to a sixth-round home tie against Fulham.
“I had a strong feeling that we still could win the game, you saw the belief, there was composure, there was never a moment of panic,” Ten Hag said.
Tottenham suffered a 1-0 loss at Championship side Sheffield United after Iliman Ndiaye scored 11 minutes from time to stun the visitors.
“The performance from all the players was first class and the experienced boys at the back were class too,” Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom told the BBC.
Grimsby Town, 16th in League Two, continued their dream FA Cup run as two penalties by Gavan Holohan knocked out Southampton 2-1 on their own ground and sent the fourth-tier side into the last eight for the first time in 84 years.
Grimsby led 2-0 soon after halftime but Southampton pulled one back through Duje Caleta-Car to ensure a tense finale.
“Just delighted for the players. We kept disciplined. Look at what that means to the support. We turned up, hoping for a miracle and to be in the quarter-final is incredible. It is just a fantastic day,” Grimsby manager Paul Hurst told ITV.
Grimsby are only the sixth team from the fourth tier or below to reach the last eight of the FA Cup since the introduction of the division in 1958-59.
Championship leaders Burnley beat Fleetwood Town 1-0 in the other tie to set up a quarter-final trip to champions Manchester City.
