You hit the woodwork. You miss a penalty. You score, but the opposition score a controversial equaliser. You have an open goal to aim at and somehow hit the woodwork again. After two hours of football, you’ve had 30 shots on goal and limited the opposition to six. You’ve put up 4.2 xG and conceded 1.5 xG going the other way, if that’s your sort of thing. You’ve done all that, then you lose on penalties.
That is one way of breaking down Manchester United’s FA Cup fourth round exit to Middlesbrough, which should be considered at least a little unfortunate. This was one of the better displays under Ralf Rangnick to date. The slick, direct transition play that he wants to implement was in evidence, certainly up until Duncan Watmore’s debatable handball and Matt Crooks’s contentious leveller.
