Wide and Out

 Manchester United chose to be united with the majority of the teams that started the 2021/2022 edition of the FA Cup competition by bowing out in a dramatic way to a team ranked seventh in the Championship. They came out guns blazing with Sanch rattling the crossbar in the second minute. In what seemed like a premonition of what was to come later that night, Ronaldo missed a glorious to put them ahead, sending his penalty wide and out. Sancho scored in the 25th minute and United went to sleep, missing chances after chances you would be forgiven to assume they were at Trafford Training Center in Carrington. Middlesbrough's resilience paid off in the 65th minute, earning a vital equalizer via Duncan Watmore. Few chances followed, regular time ended in a 1:1 draw. Nothing worth noting in the extra time apart from a Sancho injury.

You would expect the penalty merchants to win as the game went onto penalties, but the Ronaldo penalty miss seemed to have drained the team's confidence to the extent that he wasn't allowed to take the last of the 1st 5 penalties as Middlesborough weren't missing any of their penalties. 15 penalty conversions later, 8 by Boro, 7 Utd, Elanga steps up and decided he was tired and wanted to go to bed. He emulates Ronaldo's 1st half antics and sends his penalty and Utd out.

The number of chances United wasted would make one think they were determined to go for a penalty shoot-out forgetting the saying "be careful what you wish for..." if that really was the case. Ironically the penalty merchants bow out in a penalty shoot-out and their silverware drought continues to live longer.