{"id":453479,"date":"2026-03-02T11:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453479\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T11:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:10:14","slug":"crystal-palace-star-offers-backhanded-compliment-to-matheus-cunha-after-manchester-united-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453479\/","title":{"rendered":"Crystal Palace star offers backhanded compliment to Matheus Cunha after Manchester United win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Add as preferred source on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Matheus Cunha won the second half penalty against Crystal Palace that turned the game in Manchester United\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

Crystal Palace\u2019s promising afternoon at Old Trafford<\/a> turned sour in the 56th minute. Matheus Cunha was fouled inside the box and United were awarded a penalty.<\/p>\n

A VAR review then saw Maxence Lacroix sent off, before Bruno Fernandes<\/a> scored the spot-kick. Benjamin Sesko<\/a> went on to score a winner to give United the 2-1 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Palace defender Chris Richards discussed the match-turning incident, with a backhanded compliment for Matheus Cunha<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WHAT are your INSTANT REACTIONS to Man United beating Crystal Palace? <\/p>\n

BIG WIN for United!<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty Images \"MatheusPhoto by Stu Forster\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Palace defender Chris Richards admitted that they should not have given United an opening inside the box to take advantage of.<\/p>\n

He praised Cunha\u2019s game-awareness to make the most of the situation, sparking the 2-1 comeback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was quoted via Rich Fay on X<\/a>: When you\u2019re playing at a place like Old Trafford, more than likely the home team is going to get a call like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cCunha is a smart player, he knows how to play, if you feel a tug in the box, you\u2019re going to go down, so credit to him for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richards\u2019 comments were no doubt intended as a little dig at the Manchester United forward, insinuating that he went down in the box a little easily.<\/p>\n

But he did not reject the fact that Cunha was actually fouled.<\/p>\n

WHO was your Man of the Match as United beat Palace 2-1?\ud83e\udd14 <\/p>\n

Some great performances today!<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterPhoto by Darren Staples \/ AFP via Getty Images The right decision, says Mark Clattenburg<\/p>\n

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg exclusively told United In Focus<\/a> that he backed the decision to give Manchester United a penalty, and send off Lacroix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe referee was well within his rights to award a penalty kick and, as the attacker had a goalscoring opportunity and the defender was not making an attempt to play the ball, Lacroix was correctly sent from the field of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the referee awards the penalty, there is no way the VAR would overturn this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Matheus Cunha won the second half penalty against Crystal Palace that turned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,2916,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-453479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-matheus-cunha","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}