Manchester United crashed out of the FA Cup as Championship side Middlesbrough came from behind at Old Trafford and then emerged victorious in a nail-biting 16-shot penalty shootout.
Young striker Anthony Elanga ballooned his shot over the bar to give Chris Wilder’s side a win that was celebrated in enthusiastic fashion by 9,000-strong visiting support.
It was only the second time in 11 meetings with Premier League opposition that Middlesbrough had progressed, following on from their equally surprising success at Manchester City in 2015.
United will complain about Middlesbrough’s controversial equaliser, scored by Matt Crooks, who tapped home despite Duncan Watmore clearly handling in the build-up.
However, they only had themselves to blame after failing to take numerous chances in a game where they had 30 shots at goal, the clearest of which came when Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty in the first half.
Jadon Sancho seemed to have put United on the road to the last 16 when he marked his FA Cup debut with a goal.
Instead, United’s most realistic chance of silverware has now disappeared.
The draw for the FA Cup fifth round will take place at 11:40 GMT on Sunday.
Who could have known an alteration to the handball rule would have such an impact on the outcome of this match?
Following a revision of the interpretation of the rule by IFAB during the summer, accidental handball is only penalised if the player in question then scores a goal.
So, although the ball clearly hit Watmore’s hand before he lobbed the decisive pass to Crooks, referee Anthony Taylor deemed it to be accidental, as the ball had flicked up off the Middlesbrough man’s body. This was subsequently checked by VAR Stuart Attwell, who endorsed Taylor’s view.
Given Ralf Rangnick had spent the previous few seconds tapping his arm and did so again as Taylor pointed to the centre circle, desperately looking around for someone to appeal to, it is fair to assume United’s interim manager did not agree with the officials.
Source – BBC Sport
