Erik ten Hag needs a big reaction from his players this weekend.
The Red Devils will travel to Wembley again to take on an in-form Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup semi-finals.
Last night, they bowed out of Europe in pretty appalling fashion after sustaining a 3-0 loss (5-2 aggregate) to Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan, so there’ll be no Europa League trophy added to Ten Hag’s cabinet this season.
Attention is now solely on domestic action, with a top-four finish still not guaranteed for United in the Premier League.
The FA Cup does provide another prospect of silverware to add to the Carabao Cup that United lifted back in February, but it won’t come easy.
Brighton’s form this season
Brighton have been one of this season’s unexpected high-flyers. When Graham Potter left the club for Chelsea in September (how did that one turn out again?), people thought that the Seagulls’ form would drop in his absence.
However, the arrival of Roberto De Zerbi only sparked better form from the side and now, against all odds, they have their sights firmly fixed on European football. They currently sit seventh-placed in the league table and are just four points off of Tottenham Hotspur in fourth, with two games in hand over Spurs.
The Reds are winless against Brighton since February last year, having overseen a 4-0 loss and 2-1 loss in league fixtures since then.
Kick-off is at 4.30pm on Sunday, April 23 and a complete turnaround from last night’s performance is required from United if they want any chance of progressing to the final, in which they will face either Manchester City or Sheffield United.
