Andre Onana reveals he was emboldened to play the villain during Man United’s penalty shootout vs Coventry… after realising his yellow card during the match had been wiped – akin to Emi Martinez’s against Lille

Andre Onana revealed he was keen to provoke the Coventry City players during the penalty shoot-out to give Manchester United a crucial lead after learning his yellow card during the match had been “overturned”.

Onana was booked for what referee Robert Jones deemed a waste of time during the 120 minutes that preceded a dramatic penalty shoot-out, won 4-2 by United after misses by Callum O’Hare and Ben Sheaf for Coventry.

The Cameroonian was later booked during the penalty shoot-out, similar to Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martínez during their Europa Conference League win over Lille on Thursday, and the United goalkeeper said he was encouraged to act like a villain when it was done to him. aware of the rules.”

“Before the penalties I knew that my first yellow card had been disallowed, so I knew the rules,” he said with a smile on his face.

“I had to provoke some players and use my tricks to win the game, so I’m happy about that.”

Onana had been cautioned in the match but received a second yellow card in the penalty shootout.

Onana said he was aware of the rules that had also benefited Emi Martínez in midweek.

While Onana could muster a smile at his antics in the penalty shootout, which paid off as they had days before in France for Martínez, he was much more serious when asked how this game slipped away from United when they managed a 3-0 lead. .

“We have a great responsibility,” he said.

‘I start with myself, as I always say that we are here to take all the bullets, you know? When things aren’t going well, I’ll point the finger at the big players, you know? me, bruno [Fernandes]Harry [Maguire]We have a great responsibility, of course.

“Everything was under control and in the end we gave away goals. It’s more [on] us than other people.’

And he added: “It’s a mixed feeling, of course. The most important thing is the victory, which we achieved.

“It’s a difficult situation because we had the game under control and with some individual mistakes we lost the ball. But we learn from those mistakes and we have to continue working hard.”

These are back-to-back FA Cup finals for manager Erik ten Hag and Manchester United, and Onana is well aware of how difficult it was a year ago for David de Gea against Man City.

Onana, who will not be suspended for the final despite his two yellow cards in the semi-finals, is under no illusions that United will have to improve significantly before facing their city rivals at Wembley on May 25.

United won the penalty shoot-out 4-2, with Onana lending a hand to Callum O’Hare’s penalty.

Coventry had brought United back to 3-3 after losing three goals in the match.

Onana admitted that the result gave him mixed feelings, but stressed the importance of the victory

“We are still the biggest club in the country, so no matter what we play, we will come back here to win,” Onana said.

“We always have to improve, we are Manchester United,” Onana continued.

“We are still the biggest club in the country, so no matter what we play, we will come back here to win.”

When asked specifically how they can hurt City, he said: “Have more possession and be more dominant with the ball.”

“We will play against a very good team that is very good with the ball, but they have a big problem when they don’t have it, so we want to make them run.”