Injury struck at the worst time, but the Ivorian has been rewarded for staying put in January as he enters Old Trafford folklore

• Amad Diallo scored in the 121st minute as Man United received 4-3 towards Liverpool 
• His match-winning second in the FA Cup might be a launchpad at Man United 
• Have Manchester United derailed Liverpool’s season? Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off podcast 

After Amad Diallo went down in Old Trafford folklore along with his unimaginable extra-time winner towards Liverpool, it maybe wasn’t shocking the younger Ivorian forgot he had already been booked. Off got here Amad’s shirt in celebration and off he went, dismissed by referee John Brooks for a second yellow card.

Fortunately, United’s 10 males held on for the remaining seconds to clinch a well-known 4-3 win over their outdated rivals on Sunday and a spot in subsequent month’s FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.

‘It was one of the best games for Manchester United and I scored a last-minute goal against Liverpool. It was an unbelievable moment for me,’ stated Amad.

‘I consider in myself, and I wish to thank the followers and my household for supporting me each day. It could be very particular for me as a result of it was my dream to play for United.

‘The supervisor believes in me. He provides me a variety of confidence and I wish to proceed like this. I’m on the bench but each time I’m prepared to come back in and battle for the crew. I wait for my likelihood and, for me, each sport is sort of a Champions League closing.

‘It was the perfect moment. I forgot the first yellow! But it was important we won, so I am very happy.’

It won’t be the solely factor Amad desires to neglect a few season that promised a lot after he returned from a profitable mortgage spell at Sunderland final summer time.

Indeed, his Old Trafford profession has not but lived as much as expectation since United agreed a charge of £19million, probably rising to £37m, with Atalanta for the teen in January 2021.

The switch was overshadowed by allegations that he used pretend paperwork and bogus mother and father to maneuver to Europe from Ivory Coast. Diallo, who dropped the surname Traore on his 18th birthday, was fined £42,000 by the FIGC, Italian soccer’s governing physique.

The teen scored his first purpose for United in a Europa League tie towards AC Milan, but it took three years for his second to reach in Sunday’s epic cup win over Liverpool.

Amad spent the second half of the 2021-22 marketing campaign on mortgage at Rangers and final season at Sunderland. The 21-year-old returned from Wearside final summer time with the PFA Championship followers’ participant of the 12 months award after contributing 14 targets and 4 assists to Sunderland’s season which ended with defeat in the play-off semi-final towards Luton Town.

‘I was at Sunderland last season and I came here to wait for my chance,’ Amad added on Sunday.

‘It was important for me to go on loan to get more confidence and experience, so now I am at Manchester United, I am very happy to stay here.’

However, his hopes of creating an affect at United this season suffered a setback on the membership’s summer time tour of the US when he sustained a critical harm to his left knee towards Arsenal in New Jersey.

It meant he missed the alternative to stake his declare for a spot on the proper wing in a 12 months in which Mason Greenwood left the membership on mortgage for Getafe, Jadon Sancho was frozen out following a disagreement with supervisor Erik ten Hag and United put Antony on depart to contest off-the-field allegations.

Nothing was heard from Amad once more till September when he posted a photograph of his knee on social media with the caption ‘small steps’ that exposed a big scar and swelling as he started rehab at Carrington.

He resumed mild coaching in October and rejoined the remainder of his teammates in December, returning to United’s match-day squad in the final sport of the 12 months at Nottingham Forest.

Amad got here off the bench in a defeat at the City Ground and wasn’t seen once more for two extra months when he got here on as a substitute in one other defeat at dwelling to Fulham.

In between, he was missed by Ivory Coast for the Africa Cup of Nations on dwelling soil and overtaken by Omari Forson at United amid hypothesis Ten Hag rated the England Under-20 winger extra extremely. Even so, he insisted on staying at Old Trafford in the January switch window as a substitute of going out on mortgage for a 3rd time.

Amad was introduced on in the FA Cup win over Forest but frustration appeared to get the higher of him after he was left on the bench for the Manchester derby and victory over Everton. 

He deleted all reference to United from his social media accounts, leaving only a picture of himself taking part in for Sunderland and a message in French that learn ‘this will all end’. The religious Muslim later stated he shut down his social media accounts due to Ramadan.

All that was forgotten on Sunday, although, when Amad nicked the ball away from Harvey Elliott on the fringe of United’s penalty field deep into extra-time and set off in the direction of the Liverpool purpose in assist of Alejandro Garnacho.

The younger Argentina worldwide performed the ball again to him and Amad’s burst of acceleration previous Conor Bradley gave him simply sufficient house to squeeze a shot inside the far submit. Cue bedlam inside Old Trafford.

The purple card means he will probably be banned for the subsequent sport towards Brentford, but the hope now’s that Amad can turn into the participant that he – and United – all the time hoped he could be.