LONDON: The prospects of a first Manchester derby final remain alive after United secured a dramatic 3-1 win over Fulham who ended the match with nine men on the pitch and no manager in the technical area either.

Fulham took a 50th-minute lead through Aleksandar Mitrovic before the match turned on its head in the 72nd minute. Willian handled a Jadon Sancho shot on the goal-line and was sent off by referee Chris Kavanagh. He also immediately red-carded Fulham manger Marco Silva and Mitrovic for protesting.

Amid all the mayhem the nerveless Bruno Fernandes equalised from the penalty spot. Just 90 seconds later nine-man Fulham fell behind when Marcel Sabitzer converted a left-wing cross from Luke Shaw.

Fernandes made sure for United with a third goal in stoppage time.

United’s opponents in the semi-finals will be Brighton, FA Cup runners-up to United in 1983. They had a simple task reaching the semi-finals with a 5-0 win over fourth-tier Grimsby.

Ireland striker Evan Ferguson, 18, one of the most exciting new young players in the Premier League this season, struck two goals. Japan World Cup forward Kaoru Mitoma scored the fifth.

On Saturday Manchester City thrashed Burnley 6-0 with Erling Haaland, who has been playing in England for only eight months, struck his sixth hat-tricks to total 42 goals in 37 appearances in all competitions.

The Norwegian followed up his midweek quintet against RB Leipzig in the Champions League with three more goals in the 6:0 defeat of second-tier Burnley which lifted Manchester City into the FA Cup semi-finals. This hat-trick took 27 minutes, either side of half-time. Each finish was first-time, each with his left foot.

The quarter-final had begun as a big event for Vincent Kompany, the old City hero who is now Burnley manager.

He was given a generous welcome by City fans in recognition of the four Premier League titles he won with the club. He was hugged by City manager Pep Guardiola. The rest of the day belonged to Haaland.

Guardiola refused to speculate on how many goals Haaland will have by the end of the season and cautioned about the weight of expectation.

He said: “I don’t know and Erling doesn’t care because he is so positive in life. He is always so optimistic, he never complains. But this guy will have a problem in the future. Every game now he is supposed to score three or four goals and it is not going to happen.”

Julian Alvarez (two) and substitute Cole Palmer added the other goals to set up City perfectly for next month with a Champions League tie against FC Bayern against increasingly tense duel with Arsenal for the league title.

Haaland is the sixth top-flight player to score 40-plus goals in all competitions in a single season since the Premier League was formed in 1992 after Ruud van Nistelrooy (44 for Manchester United in 2002-03, Mo Salah (44 for Liverpool in 2017-18), Cristiano Ronaldo (42 for United in 2007-08), Andrew Cole (41 for Newcastle in 1993-94) and (41 for Tottenham in 2017-18).

City, in their 14th FA Cup semi-final, will face a Sheffield United team hoping to reach the final for the first final since 1936. The Blades beat Blackburn, also of the second tier, by 3:2 after recovering from 1:0 down and 2:1 down.

The winning goal, in stoppage time, fell to Sheffield midfielder Tommy Doyle. The 21-year-old is on loan from Manchester City and played six times last year at SV Hamburg. His grandfathers, Mike Doyle and Glyn Pardoe, were team-mates at City in the 1960s and 1970s.

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