According to Scott Murray of The Guardian on Saturday, Manchester United defeated Norwich City 2-1 in the first of four quarterfinals in the 2020 FA Cup. There is no doubt that Manchester United was the heavy favorite, and had all of the pressure on them. However, they came away with a narrow one-goal victory in the 118th minute from Harry Maguire of Sheffield.
Maguire, the 27-year-old center back, scored moments before the game was to be determined by penalty kicks. Maguire’s goal helped Manchester United prevent embarrassment as Manchester United is sixth in the English Premier League with 49 points, and Norwich City is last in the English Premier League with 21 points.
However, the beauty of the FA Cup is that what happens in the English Premier League has no significance or impact. The tournament is completely separate from league play, and on Saturday, we almost saw a colossal upset. When Todd Cantwell of Dereham, England scored in the 75th minute to tie the score at one, the immediate pressure went to Manchester United.
Then in the 88th minute, the momentum moved to Manchester United’s side. That is when Norwich City center back Timm Klose of Frankfurt, Germany was given a red card. Klose, who was born in West Germany before the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of West and East Germany, put Norwich City at a severe disadvantage. For the test of the game, Norwich City could only play with 10 men, while Manchester United had 11.
The man advantage for Manchester United seemed to be the spark that they would need. They dominated play thereafter and was the reason why Maguire had the space available to score the game-winner. Maguire is best known through England for scoring the game-winning goal in England’s 2-0 win over Sweden in the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup. Now he has a game-winning goal for Manchester United in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
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