ANTHONY ELANGA was the penalty villain as Championship Middlesbrough dumped Manchester United of the FA Cup fourth round in dramatic fashion.
The teenager skied the 16th spot-kick of the shootout following the incident-packed 1-1 draw after extra time.
It was a thumping Cup tie from the off between two strong sides.
A Manchester United finding it’s feet again under Ralf Rangnick.
A Middlesbrough side revived under Chris Wilder who had won eight of his 12 games since taking charge in November.
But if you thought Boro were going to sacrifice this with bigger fish to fry in terms of their renewed promotion push forget it.
Wilder hated his eight months out of the game after an emotional departure from his own Sheffield United.
It was for nights like this that he returned.
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There is renewed heart and optimism in the Boro hoards and their team did them proud.
The 9,443 visitors tickets for this game sold out in an hour and they saw their side go at it full throttle.
Paul Pogba got a bruising welcome back having not played since November 2 when captain Johnny Howson clattered him early on.
Nobody was blinking either when Matt Crooks and Scott McTominay contested a free ball.
Sir Alex Ferguson always said on occasions like this, however, that if you can match your opponent for commitment the greater would show.
So it was as United dominated at least in the first half but they missed chance after chance.
They could have been ahead after just two minutes when goalkeeper Joe Lumley spilled a high ball on the edge of his box.
Ronaldo picked it up, he is always there for the bits and pieces, and passed it short to Sancho.
His chip looked perfect over the back-peddling Boro goalkeeper but struck the bar and Bruno Fernandes spooned the rebound over.
Ronaldo came close to scoring one of his spectacular specials when he attempted an overhead kick but Lumley was well positioned and this time held it.
Fernandes was running the show in the first half and even had a verbal set too with Ronaldo over where who should be when a through ball was wasted.
He might ask him if he can take back the penalty-taking duties as well after a 19th-minute miss.
A smart turn by Pogba forced Anfernee Dijksteel into a tap tackle with his arm which saw Anthony Taylor point to the spot.
Ronaldo stepped up, hit a ball that was aimed for the bottom left-hand corner but it curled away in its last couple of yards.
The home side would not have to wait for the net to be found.
Pogba’s good interception allowed Fernandes to feed Sancho.
He still had work to do with Diksteel trying to block the angle to goal.
But Sancho has magic in those feet and slipped to one side before firing a shot that found the far bottom corner with the help of a slight deflection off the Boro player.
Up and running, United went for more.
Ronaldo was desperate to make up for his earlier miss and with a quick burst of pace got away and shot across goal.
Marcus Rashford found the net but was ruled out for offside.
Fernandes fed Ronaldo who hit it straight at the goalkeeper.
Shame behind the scenes the United catering staff could not feed the fans as they announced just before the break that due to a technical fault no food or drink could be sold at the break.
This prompted chants of ‘We want Glazers out’.
That sudden change of mood did not improve when United went on to miss more chances in the second half and Boro equalised.
Rashford had refound his scoring boots with goals after coming on from the bench in each of United’s previous two games.
He lost them last night spurning chances one of which was a golden chance early in the second half.
Shaw was buzzing and laid a ball down the left flank to Sancho who brilliantly held off his man before curling a low cross into the box for Rashford but he fired over from eight yards.
With one goal still the difference Boro had a chance and they came close to taking one just short of the hour.
Jones broke down the right and cut the ball back to Crooks whose shot to the near top corner was turned over by Dean Henderson’s outstretched palm.
There was another palm involved, this time when they did get the equaliser.
Watmore had just come on when he was found in the area by a cross from Jones.
He tried to control it with his instep but the ball flipped up off his foot and hit his hand before he chipped it across goal for Crooks to scoop home.
The Boro players celebrated as did their fans but surely VAR would rule this out.
There was no intent and he was not the scorer but the handball led to the goal. Still it stood.
Watmore and Crooks, two former United trainees celebrating at Old Trafford.
The visitors were flying and when Watmore set up Sparar at the near post Henderson had to be sharp to deny him.
Then United wasted a great chance to decide the encounter in the 72nd minute.
Goalkeeper Lumley rolled out a pass to Howson but Fernandes nicked it off him, had an open goal to aim at and….hit the post.
In injury time academy graduate Elanga could have hit the headlines for the right reasons, but instead hit the ‘keeper with a free header.
So extra time it was.
But neither side could find the all-important breakthrough – Aaron Connolly’s flick was saved by Henderson while McTominay had a header tipped over before the lottery of the shootout.
The first 15 all found the back of the net, getting better and better as the pressure mounted.
But after Lee Peltier found the top of the net to put Boro 8-7 ahead, Elanga blazed his effort high into the Stretford End and his side tumbling out.
More to follow…
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
