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Manchester United suffered a defeat to Fulham on Sunday, March 2 at the Old Trafford in the fifth round of the FA Cup and were knocked out of the competition. The scoreline was 1-1 even at the end of the 120 minutes and the match moved into penalties. Fulham won 4-3 on penalties after goalkeeper Bernd Leno managed to save spot-kicks from Victor Linelof and Joshua Zirkzee. A surprising thing was that substitute Alejandro Garnacho, who came in at the 53rd minute, did not step up to take a penalty kick in the decisive shoot-out.
The defeat meant that United are now out of the competition and their position in the league is not encouraging either. Post United’s loss, Garnacho took to his social handles and put up a photo with an apology message on it. He simply wrote three words which read. “Sorry United fans”.
Some positives to take from Man United’s defeat
A positive that Manchester United can take from the match could be the exposure that their youngsters received by playing in such a high-profile match. United youngsters Chido Obi and Ayden Heaven were both brought off the bench by manager Ruben Amorim. Chido who is 17 and Ayden who is 18 have arrived at United from Arsenal’s youth setup.
Amorim told the press how it was a tradition for United to put faith into young players and have them play for the first team. He said, “Ayden Heaven and Chido Obi both have to improve a lot…but they’re ready to play for Man United.” It is to be noted that Ruben Amorim has had a good past record of grooming and integrating young talents into his team’s squad. He has done it previously with Sporting FC as well.
The Red Devils have their next challenge setup against Spanish opponents Real Sociedad. United will travel to the Anoeta to play the first leg of the round of 16 in the Europa League on March 6.
