ERIK TEN HAG admitted Manchester United “got away with it” after his team won an FA Cup semi-final penalty shootout against Coventry on Sunday following an astonishing collapse during the match.
The Premier League side scraped through at Wembley after the game ended 3-3 following extra time, with Rasmus Hojlund scoring the decisive spot kick.
United won 4-2 on penalties against the Championship side but only after throwing away a 3-0 lead during a chaotic second half.
It is the latest chapter in a frenzied campaign for the club, who are in danger of missing out on a European place next season.
They have made a dangerous habit of tossing away winning positions over recent weeks, conceding an alarming number of chances and they reverted to their bad habits against the 1987 FA Cup winners.
“We suffer (on) occasions, we let each other down and we let the result slip away. But today we got away with it,” Ten Hag told reporters.
But the Dutch manager insisted Sunday’s result was still a positive achievement for the club and played down any notion of embarrassment at the manner of victory.
“I see the mistakes we make. We can’t look away from it. But it’s not an embarrassment. As I say, it’s a huge achievement,” he added, noting United had made the FA Cup final in back-to-back seasons.
“In the last 20 years, United was five times in the final. Now we are two times in two years. So it’s a huge achievement.
“But, of course, when you are so in control in the game, and you’re so dominating the game and 3-0 up, and then we should bring it over the finish and the way we did was not good.”
The under-pressure United boss praised his side’s character in the shootout as a “good sign” but conceded their collapse during the match was “completely unnecessary”.
Asked about morale in the dressing room Ten Hag said there were “mixed feelings”.
“They are also disappointed,” he added, referring to the way United allowed Coventry back into the match.
The United boss said his players would need to play for their places in next month’s final at Wembley against arch-rivals Manchester City, who beat Chelsea on Saturday in the other semi-final at Wembley.
“The players should prove that they earn to play in the final and to give performances in the coming weeks,” he said, as United battle to finish high enough in the Premier League table to qualify for Europe next season.
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Great result, great goals, delighted for Stephen Kenny and the team!
@Sean Whelan: 1 win in 13 odd games doesn’t inspire confidence
@Damien Gavan: Is it ok with you if we take the win. I had my doubts, but it really looked like a different team tonight. The hunger was there. I’m happy for for them. I just wanna know who do I go to to get my 2 euros back. Cause I didn’t bet on them. ;. Don’t be hating lol.
@Bobby Jones: also no goal line assistant and using VAR ? that was a 4th goal. Do better.
@Damien Gavan: your a plank
@kev egan: If you think losing to giants like Luxembourg and Armenia is acceptable your the plank
@Damien Gavan: better than a loss
@Damien Gavan: bud, relax it’s just football. We’ve beating Germany here 1-0. I was there and it was electric. Was my first game in the Aviva will never forget it.
@Bobby Jones: no problem with the win bobby delighted actually but i think we should be beating teams like Armenia in fairness
@Damien Gavan: That game did nothing but inspire confidence. You sound almost disappointed.
@Damien Gavan: to be fair I do understand what you’re saying and agree. Why didn’t we play like this last two games. ? I dont know and can’t understand it myself, but it is what it is. But what I do know if they play like they did tonight they could win every other game. I don’t expect it, but at least want them to give it a go. Have a good bud.
@Bobby Jones: cheers have a good weekend
@Damien Gavan: I make that 5 wins in the last 10 games. If you’re talking about Nations League games, don’t forget Martin O Neill and Mick McCarthy are responsible for those too!
Nathan Collins is a class act!!!
@David Devereaux: he won’t be at Burnley for long after his performances this season and especially in the 3 Internationals this week. He looks like he at a different level to our other CHs.
@David Devereaux: For me every one of the 6 players from the u21 side were class. Won’t play that well everyday but encouraging signs.
Once Obafemi went off we never looked like scoring.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: agreed ,looks like he’s going to be a top player
@Eddie Feeney: except we nearly did
@Aidan Prior: nearly never won the race
@Eddie Feeney: what? Scott Hogan got one cleared off the line or were you watching a different game?
Delighted for the team and Kenny ..
To all the naysayers out there all that’s ever been needed under Kenny in the past year is our strikers to take their chances. Versus Armenia and Ukraine we fluffed every chance we created. Versus Scotland today we took them.
The point is that the coaching remains the same for both and you just can’t blame managers for when players continually miscue shots on goal.
Kenny should be judged on the way we try and play the game, possession and tactics.
If all of that leads to goal chances which it does then what more can he or any other manager do.
They can’t kick the ball in the net themselves!
@Aaron Buckley: In fairness most have said the players just aren’t that great. Although Kenny’s awkward interviews don’t really inspire confidence either
Molumby and Obafemi must stay in , Hendrick and Robinson can keep the bench warm for a bit based on that performance
Can we play this San Marino crowd every week!?
Jokes aside, what a win. Molumby was brilliant – the difference in someone hungry to play for his nation and another who bench warms for €40k or something a week.
Every player deserves credit. We’re not out of the dark just yet and obviously there’s a lot to polish up on, but onwards and upwards hopefully.
Here’s to a similar performance in Poland this Tuesday.
@Ultan Corcoran: I shouldn’t be rubbing it into Hendrick after a win but its hard not to.. so many gutless performances and shown up by a kid full of hunger and fight.
Best performance I’ve seen to a man from Ireland in years!
No sign of the Kenny out brigade? Haha yel be back out next week no doubt. Look, on another day we could have lost that game due to woeful passing. But Kenny is trying to persist with a decent style of play with 6 of the starting 11 coming from his under 21 side. This team may be 3 years away from properly competing. Patience is key!
@Seàn Pòl O’Maolain: if you want to be critical of Kenny you could ask why Parrot and Obafemi and Malumby were sitting on the bench for the previous two games. If we were overrun in midfield against Armenia why didn’t he change the shape in that game or against Ukraine, why wait til the Scotland game? He will be judged at the end of the league but we left 6 points behind in the last two games and it will take more than this one performance to move past that.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: don’t think that’s a fair judgment. Parrot started the Armenian match and Obafemi came on and played poorly. Kenny changed the formation today from a 343 that night to 3 at the back and with 5 in midfield, Cullen in a holding position behind the four, and two upfront. Last two games we struggled to get a hold kn midfield and thankfully the manager changed tactics. You could argue that he should have changed tactics at half time in the last two games. Before the Armenian game people would have said he would have been crazy to drop Ogbene who had been great up till then.
@Aidan Prior: fair points but he’ll be judged at the end of the nation league, especially since he earmarked it as a group he wanted to win. I think he has still a lot to prove. I certainly think he should be given time but no manager of Ireland in the past would have survived losses to Luxembourg and Armenia.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: true but we’ve never had so few players at the top teams. At least he’s not having the keeper lump it up the field and we’re now creating chances and scoring goals, it wasn’t long ago that Duffy was the only player scoring for us.
If Connolly, Omobamidele and Idah kick on we’ll be in a brighter place down the line.
@Seàn Pòl O’Maolain: let’s get it straight, when Kenny fields a team that can’t produce and look lost he deserves criticism (remember losing to Ukraine’s second team, and away to Armenia this week) and when he gets it right as like today he’ll deservedly get the accolades. Remember it’s what have you done for me lately, and one swallow don’t make a summer
Onwards from this obafemi, Collins, knight and molumby were all excellent .. Kenny hater back waiting in the long grass again
It just shows if you get stuck in early and keep applying pressure, anything can happen. Obafemi on first start, best assist and best strike you could wish for. Tuesday will of course be tough but let’s enjoy now.
Great result, good performance against a terrible Scotland team. The Ukraine game on Tuesday will be very interesting to see where we are.
@Irishman1: If they are terrible, what are we? Their squad is similar to ours with a couple of decent players thrown in. Up until today, their results have also been way better than ours
@Mickety Dee: I mean today they were terrible.
@Irishman1: they had their chances. We were more hungry
@Mickety Dee: Exactly Mickety, these are the teams we are competing with to get to Euros and World Cups. The likes of Wales aren’t much better and they’re going to the World Cup, Scotland were at the last Euros. If our younger players continue to improve we’ll be in with a shout.
@Irishman1: let’s be real, Scotland were awful because we hustled them all over the pitch and at times they had trouble getting out of their own half
What was the story with Robertson being booed all game? It was pretty embarrassing stuff from our supporters.
@James Butler: sc0use r@
@John Smith: Yeah I’m a Liverpool fan and he’s a Liverpool player…but what’s the relevance of that when it’s an international match. That’s what I don’t get.
@James Butler: Utd fans acting the tool.
Kenny out!! Lolz. x
@La Golondrina: wait till Tuesday and you’re only as good as your last game
Much better. Great energy in midfield leaving less space and more compact as a result. Molumby class today. 2 great goals but it was the first that allowed the team to flourish. Could cause Urkraine issues on Tuesday with this balanced set up. Weight off their shoulders.
Ireland reminds me of when John Toshack took over Wales in 2004. He took over an ageing squad.
Robbie Savage said there would be a player mutiny if Toshack got the job. Mark Hughes also questioned his appointment.
During his six-year tenure with Wales, a total of 18 players retired from international duty but he also handed debuts to numerous players, including many of the side that would go on to reach the semi-final of UEFA Euro 2016. Wales have also qualified for this year’s World Cup.
Maybe we might be on a similar journey?
@Jimmy Roughneen: Dream on
@Jimmy Roughneen: so your hypothesis is a guy who managed a nation for 6 years with little or no success gave debuts to some players, who 6 years later qualified for a European Championships and 12 years later qualified for a world cup. And this somehow is to the credit of John Toshack???
Please for the love of god let them carry on this momentum going forward
Lovely stuff
Well done lads
One swallow doesn’t make a summer Kenny still has to go
@Noel Donohue: Why.
kEnNy OuT!!
@Ciaran Dineen: For a well deserved drink after the game?
I don’t know how I feel about Kenny. On Wednesday I was calling for his head and now I think he may be a fine manager. How can I deal with these emotions? This is worse than a first love ❤️ affair. Answers please ….
McClean is terrible.
@ChadChaderson: he wasn’t too bad today. Got a few crosses in
@ChadChaderson: not making excuses for him but he’s 33 and at min a half a yard of the pass at least and very predictable with limited options…., but on the other hand he plays with his Hel wart on his sleeve and does always his best for the team… not like Hendrick who turns up for a fashion parade, glad to se the change was made with regards to him. We should be looking strongly for a player to fill McCleans position, someone with a bit of bite and a threat going forward…., have to say the young lads all did well, fair play to them.
@ChadChaderson: Give over. He had a great game.
@ChadChaderson: ah stop, one of two things here, you either have a personal dislike for McClean or you know sweet f all about football, which one is it?
McClean was easily in the top three players on the field today. Great performance and a great career in the Green, owes us absolutely nothing at this stage. Kenny could not undertake the rebuild he is doing without the likes of McClean, Coleman and Duffy to guide the younger guns.
@ChadChaderson: McClean may be bad on occasion but he’s always available for duty in Ireland and which of his corners or dead ball frees can you criticize today and I would guess his off ball running is second to no ones I would guess he covered the most ground of all players Btw remember that goal in Cardiff ?
I know I’m going to be hammered for saying full marks and great hustle and work by the two lads from the place where you have to fight to be Irish. Hats off to McClean and Duffy for grinding it out today
Whats happens when you play players in Form!
At a guess that is probably Ireland’s biggest win in a competitive game against a team ranked higher since…I don’t know when.
Makes you wonder about the two non-performances in the preceding games.
Difficult to avoid the impression that Kenny doesn’t really know what his best team is. Would Obafemi or Parrott have played if Ogbene wasn’t injured? Was Robinson tested or dropped?
His job is safe for another while, but whether he can deliver consistent performances and results remains an open question
@Lesidees: The players deliver consistent performances not the manager.
@Bert Carolan: the manager picks the players and style of play. Kenny has been very poor at both.
Would love a shower of rain and get these 3 muppets into the studio.
Well, I didn’t see that coming … 10 year contract for Kenny now hahaha
Always enjoy an ireland win of course, but I think this will just help prolong the pain under kenny with nothing substantial at the end. Has a very similar feeling to the solskjear at united “project”. Every knew it was going nowhere but every once and a while he’ll pull off a result that will keep the daggers off him and bluff some people for another while. But in the end we’ll be looking back on kennys time with ireland in the same light most people are looking back on solskjears time with united like. Total waste of time
@James horgan: I think your parallels with Soskjaer are misjudged. Maybe based on your observations but the majority of United supporters would argue he did a bit more than pull off the odd good win. You slated Kenny after the last game but the reality is, although its far from perfect, he’s definitely trying to implement a different way of playing than we have grown accostomed to. Some of the playing out from the back was dreadful today but that was more down to the quality of the players than anything the manger did. Give him a bit more time… Hopefully we can improve alot and enjoy watching our national team again
@G Bot: Ya. Maybe. I just think its very similar to the solskjear thing. Pressure growing on kenny after 2 horrible results and performances and then pulls of a result like this to keep the critics at bay for another while. Same thing happened with solskjear for 3 years. They’d be shocking for 4 or 5 games then when the pressure was growing on him he’d pull of a win against a man city or spurs and that would spare him for the time being.. I’ve no doubt this result is not a corner turned and we’ll be having the same conversation about kenny this time next year if he lasts that long.
@James horgan: I know what you mean but it’s a positive result nonetheless . We’ll see how it pans out. I’m trying to be optimistic because it’s good to see us try to play football for a change
Kenny out, LOI manager. Out of his depth.
Absolute rocket ship of a goal. What a hit lad!
Shucked off?
Mick was outstanding, the future is bright.
‘Alan Browne’s thrusting groin’, Jesus Gavin!!
Omg league of Ireland fans wet dream