FA Cup Round Four: Man United 2 – 1 Leicester – How to Win Ugly | OneFootball

Oh my goodness gracious that was an excruciating watch.

It was the first tie of the FA Cup’s Fourth Round, a Friday night at Old Trafford. The home pitch had all the energy of a morgue, the crowd summoning all the enthusiasm of a mid-week matinee at a Wisconsin community theater.

Prior to kick-off, questions were asked at the recent run of form of Manchester United, like, can they be this bad for so long? Rubin Amorim: “Hold my beer.”

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Leicester City did their part to help Amorim out. Look at that line-up. The highlighted folks aren’t regular starters. Jamie Vardy was left off the squad (Hey Josep, was this the surprise you mentioned in your preview article yesterday?). Overall, this was (generously stated) a second-class Leicester City squad.

The First Half

The greatest summary of the first half is here, in the words of ESPN host Dan Thomas: “We were looking for highlights for Manchester United and found nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Other adjectives used by pundits to describe the host’s performance: “Ponderous. Turgid. Slow. Horrendous. Listless.” Even the boos at halftime seemed half-hearted and devoid of conviction.

The Second Half

The good news is that is was SUCH a poor performance that the second half could only get better.

And it still took something magic in Fergie-time to get the win.

But before we get there, let’s at least acknowledge that Amorim’s halftime substitutions of Alejandro Garnacho and Joshua Zirkzee did make a difference. Garnacho actually injected some pace and urgency, with a 64th minute sequence that was simply bonkers. Zirkzee was the beneficiary of a deflected ball and a scoring opportunity so easy even he couldn’t miss the net.

So at the end of regulation, we were sitting on a 1-1 draw, with three minutes of stoppage time and looked at two more extra time periods. This obviously did not sit well with the officials. Referee Michael Salisbury gave a lukewarm whistle for a questionable handball. On the ensuing free kick, Harry Maguire looked to be clearly offside and met Bruno Fernandes’ cross with his gourd to score the winner.

Of course, there’s no VAR in this round. No delay so Stockley Park could draw their lines and quibble over camera angles, and therefore the soccer-watching world was spared wasting another 30 minutes (plus stoppage) of their lives.

Summary

Sometimes heroes dress in black.

Sometimes losers dressed in red can still be winners.

And Leicester City is still Leicester City. Jamie Vardy must’ve been chewing fiber biscuit in disgust that he wasn’t there.