Antony celebrated Manchester United scraping past Coventry in the FA Cup by goading his opponents.
In truth, the winger should have been breathing a sigh of relief given United survived a late comeback against the Championship side and his reaction contrasted to Harry Maguire, who was seen consoling the beaten semi-finalists after the win on penalties.
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Antony celebrated the penalty shootout win by running towards the Coventry players with his hand cupped over his earCredit: Getty
Having been 3-0 up at one point, the Premier League side conceded three times in 24 minutes, which forced the game into extra time before a shootout was needed.
For a side who should be challenging for a place in next season’s Champions League, Man United were expected to make easy work but most players will know they were lucky to win.
However, this did not register with Antony, who turned around to the Coventry players on the halfway line and cupped his ears to gloat in victory when Rasmus Hojlund’s penalty settled the tie.
And the result and reactions were not lost on fans and pundits, with one, Mike, texting the talkSPORT Breakfast Show with Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist to say: “Watching the match was embarrassing for me as a 75-year-old lifelong Manchester United fan, which was compounded by two things: [Coventry boss] Mark Robins’ dignified press conference and Erik Ten Hag’s embarrassing one.”
Stelling then pointed out the reactions on the pitch. “I’ll tell you what, Mike I’ll add two more to add to that – Harry Maguire’s brilliant and dignified reaction at the full-time whistle with the Coventry players and Antony’s terrible, undignified celebration.”
Discussing their celebrations post-match, former United captain Roy Keane told ITV United’s fans and players are well aware how lucky they were to win.
“They had the game won at 3-0 and they were almost embarrassed to win at the end, but listen, they’re in the cup final and got the job done,” he said.
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While Antony and the other players celebrated reaching the final, Maguire walked over to the Coventry players to console them on the lossCredit: Twitter
“Every time I see this United team I don’t like what I see.
“They’re hard to like and just play in moments and after the game they talk about leadership and characters – I don’t see any of that in this group.
“Team management when you’re 3-0 up – you don’t give a Championship team any sort of hope that they can get back into the game, but that’s what they do.
“They give up chances, they give up goals and they’ve done it all season so I don’t know why we’re that surprised but my goodness they rode their luck at the end.”
United initially took control of the tie through goals from Scott McTominay and Maguire, which put them 2-0 up at half time before captain Bruno Fernandes extended their lead on 58 minutes.
But the Championship side came roaring back with Ellis Sims pulling one back on 71 minutes before Callum O’Hare’s strike, which deflected off Aaron Wan-Bissaka and looped into the net on 79 minutes.
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Ten Hag said reaching the final was not embarrassing but acknowledged the team got away wit itCredit: Getty
And in stoppage time it was Wan-Bissaka who was at the centre of things as he was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the Man United box with Haji Wright slotting home the resulting penalty.
Fernandes struck the crossbar in the first half of extra time while Sims also hit the bar with goalkeeper Onana beaten all ends up in the second half of extra time.
It looked as though Coventry had won it in the final seconds of extra time through Torp, however, the goal was chalked off due to a very marginal offside against Wright, who provided the assist for Torp.
Man United ended up winning 4-2 in the penalty shootout with O’Hare and Ben Sheaf failing to convert their spot-kicks.
The Red Devils will face local rivals Manchester City in the final on May 25 in what’s a rematch of last season’s showpiece.
With City going for a league and Cup double, it will be a tall order for Ten Hag to win another trophy to add to the Carabao Cup last season.
If he does pull it off, though, there will not be many who think it will be enough to save his job after the display on Sunday, while his post-match interview left many stunned.
“I can’t say that word (embarrassment) because, at the end of the day, it’s about the achievement.
“I see the mistakes we make – we can’t look away from it – but it’s not an embarrassment. It’s a huge achievement.
“Even the big team from United, a decade ago, only achieved the final three times. We now have two times in two years. So that’s a good performance.
“I see we can play in very high levels but in the same match we can also go very low. That’s not explainable. It has to do with managing the game.
“I have to teach my players, clearly. We have to do better in such occasions.
“On several occasions we’ve let the result slip away but today we got away with it.”
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