Manchester United 4-3 Liverpool: Amad Diallo scores 121st-minute winner as Erik ten Hag’s side win epic quarter-final clash to book a spot at Wembley and end Jurgen Klopp’s hopes of a quadruple in final season

The clock had ticked over into added time at the end of extra time of this FA Cup quarter-final. Manchester United were defending. They were defending more than just their goal and a 3-3 draw. They were defending their manager, Erik ten Hag. They were defending their pride. They were defending professional reputations that have been battered and bruised during the club’s fall from grace.

Liverpool, who were still clinging to the dream of winning the Quadruple for their departing manager, Jurgen Klopp, had a corner. United cleared it and when Harvey Elliott dallied on it a little too long on the edge of the area, Amad Diallo, a kid who seemed to be on the verge of giving up on his United career, stole if off him and it ran on to Alejandro Garnacho, a lad who never gives up, an island of optimism in another dull season at Old Trafford.

One hundred and thirty minutes of toil and graft fell away from him and Garnacho set off like a greyhound for the Liverpool goal. Diallo, a bit-part player at United this season who had come on as an 85th minute substitute, a 21-year-old whose career seemed to be going up a blind alley, sprinted alongside him, faced only with the back-pedalling Conor Bradley.

Old Trafford barely dared to hope. This season, like so many others since Sir Alex Ferguson left, has been about United fans learning to take their medicine, swallowing hard, getting used to being outclassed by Manchester City and Liverpool, being the foil to the triumphs of their most detested rivals.

So much hung on this moment. If United did not progress to the semi-finals, the obituaries for Ten Hag as United manager were ready to be written. Their season hung on this moment. If it effectively ended here, then most expected that Ten Hag’s fate would be sealed and he would be out at the end of May.

Garnacho released the ball at the perfect moment. Diallo took it in his stride. Bradley half-expected that Diallo would play it straight back to Garnacho but Diallo let it run across his body and that gave him precious space. He took it on a couple of steps and then stroked it across Caoimhin Kelleher in the Liverpool goal and watched it roll into the bottom corner.

Bedlam. Absolute bedlam. English football has rarely seen a catharsis like this. So many years of frustration and loss and, yes, shame came pouring forth in a huge explosion of triumph. The home fans lost their minds. The cameras picked out children weeping with joy, the joy that only football like this can bring.

This was one for the ages. At a time when Premier League clubs are threatening the future of this famous old competition, this was one of the greatest ties it has ever conjured. Even in the history of a stadium that the supporters call the Theatre of Dreams, there have not been too many moments like this. There had been times where all had seemed lost for United in this game but, for once, they did not lie down and submit to defeat.

They fought back and they fought back again and they would not die. Diallo was so overcome that he forgot he had already been booked and ripped off his shirt. When the celebrations had finally subsided, he was sent off. As the final seconds played out, he walked down the tunnel.

When the final whistle blew, the roar inside Old Trafford rent the air. Klopp, who was grace personified, wrapped Ten Hag in a hug and when he was released, Ten Hag punched the air like a man reprieved. Reprieved for how long, nobody knows and, right now, nobody cares. United drew Coventry City in the semi-finals. They are dreaming now of an FA Cup Final and a season that might yet be rescued.

In what might as well have been a different century, United, missing Casemiro from the heart of their team because of injury, had started the game well and Rashford hit a rasping first time shot that was curling towards the far corner until it was palmed away by Caoimhin Kelleher at full stretch inside the opening five minutes.

Liverpool gave notice of their own threat a couple of minutes later when a driven cross from Darwin Nunez, hit on a flat trajectory, eluded Diogo Dalot at the back post and fell to Mo Salah. Salah took it on the volley first time and even though it beat Andre Onana, it rolled just wide of the left-hand post.

But it was United who drew first blood. They worked the ball well down their left flank and when Alejandro Garnacho cut inside, Kelleher could only push his shot into the air. It looped up in a lazy arc and Scott McTominay, in for Casemiro, reacted first and rammed it over the line.

It was a thrillingly open start. Andrew Robertson made a sliding block to deny Garnacho at one end and then lifted a shot over the bar at the other end a minute later when he should at least have tested Onana.

United nearly went further into the lead ten minutes before the interval when some breathtaking skill from Kobbie Mainoo freed Rashford on the left and his brilliant cutback found McTominay 12 yards out. McTominay hit his shot well but too close to Kelleher, who pushed it away.

The game burst back into life. Luis Diaz led a lightning break before his shot was well-saved by Onana at the near post and, a minute later, Wataru Endo thought he had equalised when he rolled a shot into the corner before the linesman’s flag showed that Salah had strayed marginally offside in the build-up.

Two minutes before half-time, Liverpool scored again and this time there was no VAR reprieve for United. When Jarell Quansah surged forward, Nunez laid the ball into the path of Alexis Mac Allister and his fierce drive took a deflection of the outstretched boot of Mainoo, which took it beyond the reach of Onana.

A minute later, Joe Gomez dispossessed Bruno Fernandes near the corner flag and even though United appealed for a foul, play was allowed to continue. Gomez swung in a cross which found its way to Nunez and even though Onana produced a fine save to deny him, the ball fell at the feet of Salah, who swung his right foot at it and watched it go in off the post.

Fernandes compounded his sin of being dispossessed so cheaply by getting booked for dissent for complaining to the referee about the injustice of it all. Maybe he might care to reflect on the fact that if he had not gone to ground so easily, Liverpool would not have taken the lead. But there is little chance of him doing that.

A minute after the break, a cross from Nunez nearly sneaked into the goal past Onana at the near post and Fernandes took a brief break – and it was only very fleeting – from complaining to the referee to lead a counter-attack and contrive a cross that only just evaded Hojlund.

As the half wore on, Liverpool began to toy with United. They played keep-ball, passing the ball in and around Ten Hag’s increasingly frustrated players. They looked sharper and hungrier. They looked as if they believed as if they would win. United never gave that impression.

Then, three minutes from time, when Liverpool appeared to be coasting towards victory, United conjured a goal out of nowhere. More specifically, it was scored by Antony, although too often in the last season Antony and nowhere have amounted to pretty much the same thing.

It was a fine finish by United’s £85m misfit, his first goal at Old Trafford for more than a year. Surrounded by defenders, he managed to turn in the area and angle a shot past Kelleher into the corner. Even then, United almost managed to throw it away again when Onana became marooned on the edge of his area, trying to block a shot from Harvey Elliott.

Elliott chipped the ball over him and it sailed towards the far corner of the unguarded net. But when it fell, it cannoned off the inside of the post and bounced away to safety. United finished the final minutes of normal time the stronger side and Rashford should have won the match in the dying seconds.

He ran on to a lovely chip, took the ball down with a fine first touch and then slid the ball post the onrushing Kelleher. But his shot went the wrong side of the post. Rashford raised his face to the heavens and screamed out his anguish.

United recovered quickly from the disappointment of that missed opportunity. They were the better team in the first period of extra time and Victor Lindelof smashed a thunderbolt of a shot high into the side-netting. It was hit so hard, it bulged the net. Some of the crowd roared because they thought United had scored.

On the stroke of half time of extra time, though, Liverpool went back into the lead. The goal was a catalogue of misfortunes for United. Elliott struck his shot hard and true from the edge of the box but Onana had it covered. Christian Eriksen flung himself at it to try to block it but he could only deflect it. The ball squirted through Harry Maguire’s legs and Onana, wrong-footed, could not recover his ground and the ball span past him into the corner.

United’s energy seemed to evaporate. Liverpool were dominant again suddenly but still United would not lie down. Eight minutes from the end, Nunez gave the ball away to McTominay in his own half and even though he desperately tried to atone for his error, he could not catch him.

McTominay strode forward and played the ball into the path of Rashford. Rashford ran on to it in the Liverpool area and swept it first time past Kelleher. Relief and exultation were both etched on his face. Liverpool were furious with Nunez.

Old Trafford was agog. The atmosphere crackled and roared. Rashford ran on to another through ball five minutes from the end and slid a pass towards McTominay, who had burst into the area. McTominay flung himself at it and tried to steer it inside the post but it rolled just wide.

United hearts sank but they had reckoned without Garnacho and Diallo and then the explosion came. The world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury was in the directors’ box and for much of the afternoon, it had seemed the sound of a bell ringing was not for him. When United went behind, it felt that the bell tolling was tolling for the United manager. But then Ten Hag climbed up off the canvas.