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JOSE MOURINHO has come under heavy scrutiny in recent days and weeks, as his Manchester United side crashed out of the Champions League last week and continued to trail runaway Premier League leader Manchester City by 16 points, yet the Portuguese is perhaps just 180 minutes from finishing the 2017-18 season with a major trophy anyway. Man United got the best of Brighton & Hove Albion, to the tune of 2-0 at Old Trafford on Saturday, to book their spot at Wembley Stadium in the semifinals of the FA Cup. Romelu Lukaku scored the winning goal not long before halftime, with United grinding out another laborious result with superstars Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez glued to the bench for the whole of 90 minutes. United players enjoyed a healthy 61 percent of possession in the game, but were out-shot by the 12th-place side in the Premier League by a sizable margin, 16-8 (4-2 on target). Lukaku’s rampage through the FA Cup continued in the 37th minute, as the big Belgian striker bagged not only his 23rd goal of the season in all competitions, but his fifth of the tournament thus far and extended his record of having scored in each round to four games. Nemanja Matic floated a cross from the left side of the box to the back post, where Lukaku had created a meter or two of space for himself. Tim Krul didn’t come out to catch it, and Lukaku headed it just under the crossbar to give the Old Trafford faithful reason to smile again. It was Matic who got on the end of another back-post ball, this one from an Ashley Young free kick, in the 84th minute to put United two goals ahead and secure the club’s second FA Cup semifinals appearance in seven seasons (United enjoyed a run of five final-four appearances out of eight in the years prior). Tottenham Hotspur, which trails United by four points in the race for second in the Premier League, was the first side to advance to this season’s semifinals by winning 3-0 away to Swansea City on Saturday, with Christian Eriksen scoring two of the three long-range goals. Erik Lamela also struck from outside the area in the quarterfinal at Liberty Stadium as Tottenham stayed on course for a first trophy in 10 years. The FA Cup represents Tottenham’s last chance at silverware this season after getting eliminated from the Champions League by Juventus last week. (SD-Agencies) |