Andre Onana reveals how his reading up on football’s previously little-known rule about penalty shoot-outs allowed him to distract Coventry City – with the help of Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez

Andre Onana revealed he was keen to provoke Coventry City’s players during the penalty shootout to give Manchester United a crucial advantage after knowing his yellow card had been ‘cancelled’ during the match.

Onana was shown a yellow card for what referee Robert Jones deemed a waste of time during the 120 minutes that preceded a dramatic shootout, won 4-2 by United after misses by Callum O’Hare and Ben Sheaf for Coventry.

The Cameroonian was later shown a yellow card during the shootout, similar to Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez during their Europa Conference League win over Lille on Thursday, and the United goalkeeper said he was encouraged to play against the baddie when he ‘on the was informed of the rules’.

“Before the penalties I knew my first yellow card had been withdrawn, so I knew the rules,” he said with a grin on his face.

“I had to provoke some players a bit and use my tricks to win the game, so I’m happy about that.”

Onana received a yellow card in the match, but received a second yellow card in the penalty shootout

Onana said he was aware of the rules that Emi Martinez had also taken advantage of midweek

While Onana could muster a smile at his post-penalty antics, which paid off as they had done for Martinez a few days earlier in France, he was much more serious when asked how this match escaped United’s grasp as they went to a 3 -0 lead. .

“We have a great responsibility,” he said.

“Me, I’ll start with myself, like I always say we’re here to take all the bullets, you know? When things don’t go well, I point the finger at big players, you know? Me, Bruno [Fernandes]Harry [Maguire]we naturally have a great responsibility.

‘Everything was under control and in the end we gave away goals. It’s more [on] us than other people.’

He added: “It’s obviously a mixed feeling. The most important thing is the victory we achieved.

‘It’s a difficult situation because we controlled the game and gave the ball away with some individual mistakes. But we learn from those mistakes and we have to keep working hard.’

It’s back-to-back FA Cup finals for boss Erik ten Hag and Manchester United and Onana is well aware of how difficult it was for David de Gea against Man City a year ago.

Onana, who has not been ruled out for the final despite his two yellow cards in the semi-finals, is under no illusions that United need to improve significantly before facing their city rivals at Wembley on May 25.

United won the shootout 4–2, with Onana getting a hand on Callum O’Hare’s penalty

Coventry had pulled United back to 3-3 after being three goals down in the match

Onana admitted that the result gave him mixed feelings, but emphasized the importance of the victory

“We are still the biggest club in the country, so no matter what we play, we come back here to win,” Onana said.

“We always have to improve, we are Manchester United,” Onana continued.

“We are still the biggest club in the country, so it doesn’t matter what we play, we come back here to win.”

When asked specifically how they can hurt City, he said: ‘I have more possession and am more dominant on the ball.

“We will be playing against a very good team, who are very good on the ball, but they have a big problem when they don’t have the ball, so we want to let them run.”