Erik ten Hag praised the character of David de Gea, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford after they all played key roles in securing Manchester United a spot in the FA Cup final.
De Gea bounced back from a disastrous showing in the Europa League quarter-final defeat to Sevilla on Thursday night to keep a clean sheet against Brighton, making a couple of outstanding saves in normal time.
Sancho and Rashford then scored in the shootout, burying the demons of their missed spot-kicks for England in the European Championship final in July 2021.
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United scored all seven of their penalties in the shootout, with Solly March firing over the crossbar for the Seagulls, and while De Gea didn't save a penalty, he played a key role in normal time.
"David played a great game, in and out of possession, he made some great saves, he’s done that so often this season, great saves, we have the most clean sheets in the Premier League, today a clean sheet as well, because we were so determined, we were fighting for it, we were organised," said Ten Hag.
He also praised Sancho and Rashford for showing the character to step up and score, having suffered such a miserable experience in the same stadium almost two years ago.
"From Rashy and Jadon about penalties, we knew that, but we knew also they’re comfortable on penalties, they dealt with it," added Ten Hag.
"It’s a time ago, but they are so calm and composed in training with penalties. I know this is a different occasion but I think it’s great they had this experience now and I think it will help them for the future. I don’t think there’s a hesitation, before there was never a hesitation because they are really good penalty takers."
Ten Hag was pleased with the way his side responded to their disastrous defeat in midweek and he labelled the loss to Sevilla the worst performance of the season.
But when the dust settles he also knows his team have an obvious area for improvement after the way they collapsed in the Europa League quarter-final second leg.
"It was not us [on Thursday]," he said. "I don’t know what happened, I focus on this game, it’s such a short time to prepare this, get this done.
"It was the worst game of the season we played in Seville. We have to go through what happened, we can’t change it any more, all we can do is take lessons for the future and what we can improve is we can deal with setbacks between games, now we have to bounce back in a game in difficult citations or occasions or away stadiums, we have to show personality, carry on, stick to the plan and turn around.
"If we play a bad game, there were opportunities on Thursday to bounce back and get back into that game. If you can fight three days after a defeat, you can do it in a game."
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