"Provoked" - Erik ten Hag makes Antony claim after Coventry City v Man Utd controversy | OneFootball

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has come out and defended Antony over his gesture towards the Coventry City players after their agonising defeat on penalties to the Red Devils.

If Haji Wright's feet were a few sizes smaller, then we would all be having a completely different conversation about what happened at Wembley on Sunday afternoon.

Wright found an unmarked Victor Torp in the middle of the box in the last minute of extra time, in a match which had seen Coventry go from being 3-0 down after 70 minutes to levelling the game at 3-3 with a 95th minute penalty and sending the tie to extra time.

Torp poked the ball past the Man United goalkeeper and, seemingly, set up an FA Cup final match between themselves and Manchester City. But it wasn't to be, because the American had barely strayed offside, and the goal was ruled out.

The contest required penalties to decide the winner, and, despite Casemiro's bizarre miss on United's first attempt, they ended up winning thanks to missed efforts from Callum O'Hare and Ben Sheaf.

Rasmus Hojlund scored Man U's final spot-kick, sending them to the final, and yet none of his teammates rushed over to celebrate.

Antony's controversial gesture towards the Coventry players

While most of the Dane's teammates stayed on the halfway line to congratulate City on their efforts, with a stench of relief about them, there were a few who went over to Hojlund to celebrate. One of them was Antony.

The £85 million winger has been a bit of a disappointment since joining the Red Devils, and he failed to make much of an impact on the semi-final when he came on.

And, instead of being gracious, humble, and accepting that he and his teammates had woefully underperformed from the second half onwards, he ran away in celebration after his team had won, cupping his ears towards the Coventry players.

The player himself has come out and defended his actions on X.

Erik ten Hag's response to Antony's celebrations

The former Ajax boss, who brought the Brazilian to England from the Dutch club, has come out and defended the actions of his player.

He said, at his press conference for his team's midweek meeting with Sheffield United: "Did you see the reaction of Harry Maguire? [Antony] was provoked, that's why this was a reaction of that, you haven't seen the provocation, only the reaction.

"But he should not do it.

"I have seen Harry Maguire straight after and others, we should acknowledge the performance of Coventry coming to that final and the comeback. We are 70 minutes totally dominating the game by far and 3-0 must have been the game is closed but the return from their side was very good."

The Dutchman also called out the press' reaction to the match, saying it was: "embarrassing," and "a disgrace," as per The Athletic.

Erik ten Hag has a lot of nerve to defend Antony's actions

Antony is a very marmite footballer.

The tricks and seeming inability to use his right foot can infuriate some and make wishful thinkers of others. But the lack of class that he showed at that moment was unbelievable.

Maguire, who was heavily criticised during his time as Man United captain, showed some proper leadership and character by facing up to what his team had just done, instead of trying to antagonise a team that isn't worth half of what United paid for the Brazilian winger.

Antony's justification for why he did what he did is a weak one. Fans giving players stick from the terraces, or seats in this case, is no unusual thing, and yet he decided to do it at this moment, against a side who are eighth in the division below them, who will do well to get into the play-offs, when his billion-pound team barely scraped past them on penalties.

It's the sign of an insecure player who was more relieved than excited, and wanted to vent some of the frustration that he and his teammates had built up in the game, and he needlessly directed it at the City players.