Andre Onana Admits He Used 'Tricks' to Send Man Utd Into FA Cup Final

Man Utd beat Coventry City on penalties in FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, where Onana picked up a yellow card during the shoot-out having already been booked.

Andre Onana helped Man Utd to victory / Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images

Andre Onana admitted he had to use his "tricks" to help Manchester United through their FA Cup semi-final penalty shoot-out against Coventry City.

The Red Devils had been leading 3-0 but conceded three goals in the final two minutes of regular time as the Championship outfit managed to take United all the way to penalties, where they ultimately came up short.

Onana, who had been booked earlier in the game for timewasting, received another yellow card during the shoot-out for his behaviour towards the Coventry players. It did not result in a red card as cautions are wiped before penalties, as was the case with Aston Villa's Emiliano Martinez in the Europa Conference League quarter-final earlier this month.

"Before the penalties, I knew before that my first yellow card had been cancelled, so I was aware of the rules," Onana told the Manchester Evening News. "I had to make some provocation to some players and to use my tricks to win the game, so I’m happy for that.

"It's a mixed feeling, of course. The most important thing is the victory, that we won. It's a difficult situation because we had the game under control and with some individual mistakes we gave the ball away. But we learn from those mistakes and we have to continue working hard.

"A lot of things are happening this season. If you put everything [on] the table, we can speak about everything. Injuries, playing with bad leg, but they are not excuses, no? Missing a lot of important players as well and it's difficult, so such a big club with such big players to play without."

Sweeper keeper 💪@AndreyOnana's touch map from @ManUtd's semi-final win is crazy 😅#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/vu6x9SOHoR

— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) April 22, 2024

Coventry's three-goal blitz was further evidence of United's inability to prevent huge numbers of shots at Onana's goal, but the United stopper insisted attack is the best form of defence.

"I don't pay much attention to how many shots we concede or stuff like that because at the end of the day it's about winning and today we won so I have to look forward," Onana explained.

"Having more possession and be more dominant on the ball. We will play a very good team who are very good with the ball but they have a big problem when they don't have the ball so we want to make them run.

"We have a big responsibility. Me, I start with myself, like I always say we are here to take all the bullets, you know? When things are not going good I will point fingers to big players, you know? Me, Bruno [Fernandes], Harry [Maguire], we have big responsibility, of course. Everything was under control and in the end we gave away goals away. It's more us than other people.

"We always have to improve, we are Manchester United. We are still the biggest club in the country so it doesn't matter what we play, we will come back here to win."

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