Brilliant Brighton secured a famous 3-1 win at Manchester United as things went from bad to worse for Erik ten Hag’s side after a challenge-filled fortnight.
Jadon Sancho has been banished from the first-team squad and Antony given a leave of absence following assault allegations against him since the galling, last-gasp loss at Arsenal.
Brighton heaped further misery on United as attention returned to on-field matters on Saturday afternoon, with Danny Welbeck, Pascal Gross and Joao Pedro scoring before Hannibal Mejbri’s consolation effort.
The comprehensive end of the Red Devils’ 31-game unbeaten home run in all competitions came against the side that last beat them in the league at Old Trafford in Ten Hag’s first match in charge.
Welbeck opened the scoring against his former club, before a Marcus Rashford strike hit the woodwork and Rasmus Hojlund’s first goal for the club was ruled out by the VAR.
Gross netted both goals in last season’s Old Trafford win and fired Roberto De Zerbi’s men further ahead early in the second half, before substitute Pedro landed another body blow.
Boos greeted Ten Hag’s decision to bring Anthony Martial on for full debutant Hojlund, but fellow introduction Hannibal did his bit when striking home his first for the club from distance.
But there was to be no stirring comeback like in United’s last home game against Nottingham Forest as attention now turns to Wednesday’s Champions League clash at Bayern Munich.
Brighton have a historic Europa League match against AEK Athens to look forward to themselves after winning at Old Trafford for just the second time in their history.
De Zerbi surprisingly made six changes on Saturday, when Ten Hag made three and plumped for a midfield diamond that caused the visitors early problems.
Rashford’s skill and perseverance ended with a low drive being saved by Jason Steele and Hojlund headed over, before nearly combining when the new boy stretched for the homegrown star’s cross.
But De Zerbi’s side looked unruffled and took a 20th-minute lead at the end of a well-worked move.
Welbeck burst towards the box having played wide to Simon Adingra, whose low ball from the right was smartly left by Adam Lallana for the 32-year-old to smash home.
The opener gave Brighton fans an extra pep in the step and the goalscorer tried his luck from distance, with United offering little in response until the 34th minute.
Casemiro swept the ball out to Rashford on the left, with the forward darting inside and getting away a drive that Joel Veltman turned onto the woodwork with an unorthodox block.
United bounced back from that near miss and celebrated an equaliser five minutes before the break.
Rashford followed stepovers by darting to the byline and pulling back for Hojlund, who turned and prodded in what appeared to be his first United goal.
But with play ready to resume at 1-1, referee Jarred Gillett was informed by VAR Chris Kavanagh that the ball had gone out of play before Rashford could get the pass away.
The England international continued to look dangerous and went close in stoppage time, then struck into the side-netting when the second half got under way.
But Brighton were still pursuing a second and their warning shots across the bows went unheeded.
Gross ran onto a pass by Tariq Lamptey just inside the box, sent Lisandro Martinez flying with a drop of the shoulder and fizzed past Andre Onana in front of the away fans.
The 53rd-minute effort left United reeling and Ten Hag turned to his bench, but the decision to replace Hojlund with Martial was audibly unpopular.
Rashford saw a free-kick stopped as the hosts desperately looked to claw a goal back, only to be hit by a Brighton third in the 71st minute.
Lamptey raced down the left and cut back for substitute Pedro, who opened his body to hit a first-time, right-footed shot that Onana could not stop finding the net.
Punch-drunk United managed to pull one back immediately through youngster Hannibal, who lasered an effort past Steele from 25 yards two minutes later.
Victor Lindelof headed over but intelligent Brighton were able to take the sting out of proceedings, exposing gaps left by the desperate hosts.
Kaoru Mitoma, substitute Evan Ferguson and debutant Ansu Fati saw shots saved as the clock wound down. Onana stopped the latter again in stoppage time.
Ancelotti lauds Real Madrid goalscorer Vinicius after first-leg double
Carlo Ancelotti believes Vinicius Junior is constantly developing his attacking output, after the Real Madrid forward delivered again in the Champions League.
Vinicius scored twice as Madrid drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday.
Those strikes took Vinicius to 31 goal involvements (16 goals, 15 assists) in the Champions League since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, which is more than any other player in the competition in the same time period.
Vinicius' opener came when he cut inside and latched onto an exceptional pass from Toni Kroos, and Ancelotti pointed out how the Brazil international is beginning to change how he attacks.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Ancelotti said: "Vinicius is starting to understand how important it is for him to move inside the pitch and not only close to the line.
"He's learned really well how to move. It was a fantastic pass from Kroos but a fantastic run from Vinicius."
Reflecting on his team's performance, Ancelotti said: "It was an interesting game, an open game of course – as it has to be for a semi-final. I think we could play better, I don’t think we played our best and we had problems in the first half.
"We started to put pressure on in the second half to level the game – it was much better.
"We are comfortable with a low block but we didn’t play with intensity. With a low block you have to have intensity, you have to win duels, second balls. We were too low. We tried to change something.
"The game was difficult at 2-1 down, but then we had the energy and character to equalise – the second part of the second half was really good."
Coventry City 1-2 Ipswich Town: Burgess puts Tractor Boys on brink of promotion
Ipswich Town took a huge step to Premier League promotion after Cameron Burgess snatched a second-half winner in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Coventry City.
Kieran McKenna's side require just one point from their final Championship game against League One-bound Huddersfield Town to go up, after a decisive victory at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Kieffer Moore blasted in an eighth-minute opener for the visitors after Wes Burns' crafty cutback pass, easing the pressure on Ipswich and dampening the top-two hopes of third-placed Leeds United.
Haji Wright levelled in the second half, only for Burgess to squeeze a winning goal past Bradley Collins five minutes later, putting Ipswich on the brink of top-flight football for the first time since their relegation in 2002.
A draw against Huddersfield, who are 23rd and three points adrift of safety, would secure promotion at Portman Road, marking just the fourth instance of back-to-back promotions in the Premier League era.
Having managed to climb out of League One, McKenna's entertaining side would join Watford, rivals Norwich City and Southampton as the only sides to achieve the feat.
Data Debrief: Ipswich end winless run at perfect time
Prior to this game, only five teams had won fewer points in the Championship than Ipswich's six since the beginning of April (W1 D3 L1).
Yet McKenna's men refused to let their top-flight push derail as the Tractor Boys ended a four-game winless run to move within touching distance of history.
Al Ittihad 1-2 Al Hilal: Holders into King's Cup final
Al Hilal overcame Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's red card as Saud Abdulhamid's late goal sealed a 2-1 victory over Al Ittihad in the King's Cup semi-finals.
Without Karim Benzema, Al Ittihad ultimately lacked the firepower to make their numerical advantage count in Tuesday's clash.
Former Lazio midfielder, who joined Al Hilal as part of their spending spree last year, received a straight red card in the 42nd minute.
Al Ittihad's Abderrazzaq Hamed-Allah cancelled out Micheal's opener, but Abdulhamid popped up with the winner in the 81st minute.
Al Hilal are 10-time King's Cup winners, having won their 10th title last season.
The Saudi Pro League leaders, who are still without the injured Neymar, will now face either Al Khaleej or Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr in the final at the end of May.
Data Debrief: Malcom in the middle
Al Hilal might be missing their star Brazilian Neymar, but his compatriot Malcom is delivering when it comes to playmaking.
The former Zenit attacker set up both of Al Hilal's goals, creating three chances in total and registering a pass accuracy of 92.6 per cent, better than any of his team-mates.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
