Manchester United

Manchester United

Premier League • England

Man Utd make up for European ‘hurt’ as Ten Hag hails ‘resilience’ in reaching FA Cup final

Erik ten Hag, Manchester United, April 2023

Erik ten Hag admitted he “didn’t recognise” Manchester United when they were knocked out of the Europa League, but they showed “determination and resilience” in bouncing back from that “hurt”.

Ten Hag has had quite the impact since he became United’s manager in the summer. He won the first trophy available to him when the Red Devils beat Newcastle United in the League Cup final in February.

He’s now guided his side into the FA Cup final, to face rivals Manchester City. The run to the final had been a pretty smooth one until the semi-finals.

United had won each round up to this point 3-1, weirdly. They surpassed Everton in the third round, before beating Championship side Reading in the fourth round.

The fifth round saw them defeat West Ham United, before moving past Fulham in the quarter-finals. The 3-1 scoreline was put to bed against a Brighton side who have been in top form all season.

The Seagulls had some good results to bring them to this point. A 5-0 win against Grimsby in the quarter-finals was the biggest margin of victory, while a 5-1 win against Middlesbrough and a 2-1 win over Liverpool were also highlights.

As such, United knew they’d be in for a tough game, and that’s how things panned out. The closely-contested affair ended all square at 0-0 after 90 minutes, with extra time also unable to reveal a winner.

That left penalties to decide the tie, and even after six were taken by each side, neither was on top.

Solly March then stepped up to take Brighton’s seventh and pumped it over the bar, giving Victor Lindelof the chance to seal a spot in the final for United, which he did emphatically by striking into the top-right corner.

Ten Hag hails ‘determination and resilience’

Speaking to BBC after the game, United manager Ten Hag detailed how this was a welcome bounce back from the painful Europa League quarter-final loss in the week.

“On Thursday I saw a team I didn’t recognise but today we went back to usual,” he said.

“I could see determination and resilience. We fought for every yard and competed in every battle. We had good chances.”

David de Gea didn’t have the best game during the loss to Sevilla, but Ten Hag felt he and United worked for the win today.

“I was very impressed with him. He made some brilliant saves. It hurt when he made mistakes on Thursday,” Ten Hag added.

“Often when you make mistakes as a keeper you get punished. We let him down, we didn’t fight back for him. We bounced back today though.”

Bare bones defence hailed

Three of the central defenders at the top of United’s pecking order – Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez and Harry Maguire – were unavailable to face Brighton.

As such, Luke Shaw – who has operated at centre-back often this season – was paired with Lindelof at the back. Ten Hag praised the latter for the winning goal, and the work the pair did together throughout the game.

“He [Lindelof] is quite cool when it comes to penalties and he’s quite cool in general,” Ten Hag said.

“I thought Victor and Luke Shaw played brilliantly. They had great co-operation with Casemiro.”

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