Manchester, Feb 10: Manchester United is into the FA Cup quarterfinals for a seventh straight season. Bournemouth got there for only the second time in its 122-year history.
Scott McTominay’s 97th-minute strike earned United a 1-0 win over West Ham in a lackluster fifth-round match that required extra time at snowy Old Trafford on Tuesday. In another demonstration of his growing assuredness in front of goal, the midfielder steered a volley into the bottom corner after a neat lay-off by Marcus Rashford at the end of a counterattack.
The 24-year-old McTominay scored the winner against Watford in the third round, and also netted in his last two Premier League games. “Scott has really developed that part of his game this season,” United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. “We let him go into the box more often, unleash him. He’s a very good striker of the ball, very clinical. “He was a forward in his younger days and you can see the authority when he gets a chance to finish.” United, a 12-time winner of the FA Cup, is accustomed to going deep in cup competitions under Solskjaer over the past year but the semifinals have been the ceiling, with the team losing in the last four in the League Cup (twice), the FA Cup and the Europa League. Along with the Europa League, the FA Cup looks to be United’s best chance of collecting its first piece of silverware since 2017 after falling five points behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race. City also has a game in hand. West Ham, led by former Man United manager David Moyes, frustrated Solskjaer’s side with a disciplined defensive performance but wasn’t helped by losing three players — Angelo Ogbonna (ankle), his replacement Issa Diop (head), and Andriy Yarmolenko (knee) — to injury by the 54th minute. (AP)
