Andre Onana revealed he was eager to provoke Coventry City’s players during the penalty shootout to give Manchester United a crucial advantage after knowing his yellow card during the match had been ‘cancelled’.
Onana was booked for what referee Robert Jones deemed time wasting during the 120 minutes that preceded a dramatic shootout, won 4-2 by United after misses from Callum O’Hare and Ben Sheaf for Coventry.
The Cameroonian was later booked during the shootout, similar to Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez during their Europa Conference League win over Lille on Thursday, and the United goalkeeper said he was emboldened to play the villain when he was made ‘aware of the rules’.
‘Before the penalties I knew that my first yellow card had been cancelled so I was aware of the rules,’ he said, with a grin on his face.
‘I had to make some provocation to some players and to use my tricks to win the game, so I’m happy for that.’
Andre Onana revealed that he ‘used his tricks to help Man United beat Coventry’ on Sunday
Onana had been booked in the game but received a second yellow card in the penalty shootout
Onana said he was aware of the rules that had had also benefitted Emi Martinez in midweek
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While Onana was able to crack a smile at his penalty shootout antics, which paid off as they had days earlier in France for Martinez, he was much more serious when asked how this game got away from United when they cruised to a 3-0 lead.
‘We have a big responsibility,’ he said.
‘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 a big responsibility, of course.
‘Everything was under control and in the end we gave goals away. It’s more [on] us than other people.’
He added: ‘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.’
It is back to back FA Cup finals for boss Erik ten Hag and Manchester United and Onana is well aware of how tricky it was a year ago for David de Gea up against Man City.
Onana, who won’t be banned for the final despite his two semi-final yellows, is under no illusion that United have to improve significantly before facing their city rivals back at Wembley on May 25.
United won the shootout 4-2, with Onana getting a hand to Callum O’Hare’s spotkick
Coventry had pulled United back to 3-3 after going three goals down in the showpiece match
Onana admitted the result gave him mixed feelings, but emphasised the importance of the win
Onana praised the ‘biggest club in the country’ and stressed that the side will return for the final reinvigorated
‘We always have to improve, we are Manchester United,’ Onana continued.
‘We are still the biggest club in the country so it doesn’t matter what we play, we will come back here to win.’
Asked specifically how they can hurt City, he said: ‘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.’
