Maguire's admits mistake he made for Arsenal penalty in FA Cup

Harry Maguire admitted he initially thought VAR would overturn the penalty decision against him in Manchester United’s FA Cup clash with Arsenal.

It was later that he realised the technology wasn’t in use for the third round of the competition.

The controversial moment occurred at the Emirates Stadium when referee Andrew Madley awarded Arsenal a penalty for what appeared to be minimal contact between Maguire and Kai Havertz.

Maguire protested the decision, convinced that VAR would review and overturn it—until he remembered the system would only be introduced from the fifth round onwards.

Havertz went down under slight contact, and before Martin Ødegaard could step up to take the penalty, tempers flared.

Maguire confronted both Madley and Havertz, accusing the Arsenal forward of exaggerating the situation.

Justice was ultimately served as United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir made a brilliant save to deny Ødegaard and later stopped Havertz in the decisive penalty shootout to help United secure a spot in the fourth round.

Reflecting on the incident, Maguire expressed his frustration with the lack of VAR and suggested that Madley would regret the call after reviewing it.

“It’s a tough one, really. At the time, when he gave it, my initial instinct was that it will be all right, VAR will overturn it,” Maguire said.

“And then it clicked in my head that VAR could not intervene. So that’s when my head went a little bit. He probably looks back, he knows he got it wrong.

"Listen, that’s why we have VAR—because for the big moments, we need them correct. It’s a tough gig if they don’t have help.”

Despite being down to 10 men for nearly an hour following Diogo Dalot’s red card, United battled hard to stay in the contest.

Maguire acknowledged his team’s struggles in possession but praised their resilience and defensive organization in difficult circumstances.

“It was a game where we didn’t play too well with the ball, but I think we showed great fight, great spirit, great character—especially going down to 10 men away at the Emirates,” said Maguire.

“[It’s a] tough place to come. We know that. They’re a good team. To stay in the game and limit them to not many chances—I didn’t feel they had much. I thought the boys put in a great shift."

Maguire also reflected on United’s performances in challenging away games under Ruben Amorim, emphasizing the progress made despite their current position in the Premier League table.

“We’ve had four tough away games under this manager—Arsenal twice, City, and Liverpool—and I feel like we’ve competed in all of them. We got done here last time, but only by two set plays. Apart from that, there wasn’t much in the game.

"I didn’t think there was much in the game again, even though we were 1-0 up after 60 minutes. Then the sending-off happened, and we had to hang in there. But I felt that the shape was good, we defended our box really well, and Altay made some big saves when he needed to.”

Maguire urged the team to use the win as a springboard for improvement but stressed the need to address their disappointing league form.

“I think it’s important that we stick together. But we also have to realize that we are still where we are in the league table. We’ve got big games coming up. We can’t rest because the league table, to look at, is embarrassing. So we’ve got to kick on from this.”

United’s hard-fought victory sees them advance to the FA Cup’s fourth round, where they will aim to build on this morale-boosting result and turn their season around.