Solly March’s missed penalty saw Manchester United edge past Brighton to reach the FA Cup final with a 7-6 shoot-out win after a goalless semi-final draw at Wembley.
The Brighton winger was left unconsolable with the only miss of 14 spot-kicks, following a tense 120 minutes where either side could have felt they would have been worthy of returning to face Manchester City on June 3.
Brighton flew out of the blocks and saw Alexis Mac Allister pull David De Gea into an early fingertip save from a free-kick, but United improved as the half wore on and Bruno Fernandes and Anthony Martial both missed presentable chances in added time.
The Seagulls were inches from finally opening the scoring in the second period but Julio Enciso, the hero at Chelsea last weekend, was denied again by a flying De Gea stop before Danny Welbeck nodded wide from a corner. Substitute Jadon Sancho could have won it for Erik ten Hag’s side late on, but lifted a curling effort just over the goalframe.
In extra-time, Marcus Rashford flashed an effort past the post with only Robert Sanchez to beat before Kaoru Mitoma’s heavy touch denied him what seemed a certain last-minute winner – and after each of the first 12 penalties in the resulting shoot-out were scored, March’s miss left Victor Lindelof to score the winning spot-kick and set United up for a shot at a second trophy this season.
