Humble United star admits it felt wrong to ‘celebrate too hard’ after ‘strange’ FA Cup tie

Harry Maguire has been commended for his dignified reaction following Manchester United’s penalty shootout success last Sunday.

The Red Devils were taken to penalties in the FA Cup semi-final despite leading Coventry City 3-0 in the 71st minute of the game.

Then, in a manner that fans have become all too accustomed to seeing this season, United capitulated for the remaining 20 minutes of regular time and conceded three goals, the latter of which came from the spot after Aaron Wan-Bissaka was deemed to have handled the ball.

When Coventry’s last-gasp winning goal in extra time was chalked off by VAR, penalties became the only way to separate the sides. United’s four spot-kicks scored to the opposition’s two meant that Erik ten Hag and his men were heading to the final for a second successive season.

While a handful of Reds wheeled off to celebrate with the travelling supporters, numerous members of the squad cut subdued figures when the tie was over – Maguire being one. He went immediately over to Coventry’s players to shake hands with each of them.

Maguire reviews FA Cup triumph

Reflecting on the evening, the England international told Sky Sports: “It was a really strange mix of emotions throughout the game.

“We started the game so well, we were so comfortable in the game all the way up to 70 minutes really and then the goal comes from nowhere. It was a soft goal to give away on our behalf, to be that open when we’re 3-0 up with 20 minutes to play is far too naive from ourselves.

“In the couple of hours from the start of the game to the end of the game, the amount of emotion you went through and in the end you’re probably just feeling a little bit of relief. And yeah, I don’t think we needed to celebrate too hard, we let ourselves down in the last 20 minutes of normal time and to play for this club involves bringing huge responsibility and we didn’t take responsibility in those last 20 minutes of the game so yeah, we were disappointed on that behalf.”

“Coming into training the next day, you’re in another final, an FA Cup final,” he continued. It’s what you dream of playing in when you’re a young boy so the boys are really happy we’ve made it to the cup final.

“We’ve had a good run along the way, obviously beating our rivals Liverpool in the quarter-finals and then going to Wembley, being comfortable for that first 70 minutes. But like I said, the way the game ended, we were disappointed with the way that we acted and we played in that last 20 minutes and then even in extra-time.

“We went into extra-time, we remained focused, we got our heads back, but we didn’t play to a level that we should have so on that behalf, yeah, it was disappointing.”