According to Antony, a Sky Blues player’s “not nice” behavior of Manchester United’s supporters on Sunday was the reason for his praise of the Coventry City players.
After mocking Coventry’s players shortly after Rasmus Hojlund scored the game-winning penalty kick against Mark Robins’ team, the Brazilian winger has come under intense criticism. After trailing 3-0, Coventry rallied to draw the game, only to lose on penalties in the extra period.
Since then, a picture has surfaced on social media that seems to depict Haji Wright mocking United’s supporters following the shootout penalty he scored. Furthermore, Antony seemed to indicate that this was the reason for his outburst after bringing up the treatment of United supporters by “their player.”
Coventry demonstrated why they made it to the semifinals, according to Antony on X, the former Twitter. “We worked hard to earn this final slot for our supporters, and we did it. In the heat of the moment, I responded to the provocations in a natural defense of my team because of the rude way their player treated our fans.”
Since then, United manager Erik ten Hag has referred to the response to his team’s valiant victory over Coventry as “embarrassing” and “a disgrace.”
“The goal of football is to win,” he declared on Tuesday. “We deserved to be in the final and we did. We were quite fortunate to make it to the final despite losing control for twenty minutes. That is just amazing.
“It was disgraceful how you [the media] responded. It’s amazing that there have been two FA Cup finals in two years. Four cup finals in four years for me as manager. The remarks are shameful.