Luke Shaw praised the “amazing confidence” of Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford in scoring their penalties in Manchester United’s FA Cup semi-final 7-6 shootout win over Brighton after each missed when England lost to Italy in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley and suffered racial abuse.
Sancho and Rashford took the team’s third and fourth spot-kicks respectively on Sunday as United sealed a place in the first all-Manchester Cup final against Manchester City on 3 June. Shaw said he had spoken to Sancho before the forward took his.
“I was next to Jadon. I said: ‘Whatever happens happens, just be confident. It’s part of football, things happen, these things happen.’ And I think maybe what was playing on their minds are the things that come with it, the racism and stuff that they experienced last time.
“They showed amazing confidence to step up because the last time they took one in a shootout it was, of course, at Wembley and the memories of that. I’m really happy for both of them to put themselves forward and take really good penalties. It massively shows their courage.”
After England lost to Italy in July 2021, Sancho, Rashford and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka were racially abused online. In November that year a man was jailed for 10 weeks for livestreaming himself committing the offence.
Shaw is excited to face City but is not taking for granted that he will start if fit given Erik ten Hag’s approach. “Every day with this manager you have to be 100% at it in training, around the place, because he sets high standards. If you don’t meet them, you don’t play no matter what the circumstances are; whether there’s injuries, suspensions, it does not matter.
“So, for me, I don’t take it for granted. Still, the back end of the season is the most important, that’s when you win stuff, and we want to win this trophy so we have to give it everything. Everyone’s going to look forward to being involved in it.”
