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United punished Fulham’s insane five minutes to book their place in the FA Cup semi-finals as they came from behind to secure victory at Old Trafford.

Fulham made the most of the lead Aleksandar Mitrovic gave them five minutes into the second half, but the wheels came off with around 20 minutes remaining when manager Marco Silva, Willian and Mitrovic were all sent off 40 seconds apart.

It came after a Fulham corner was turned into a United attack, with substitute Antony running down the right and squaring off for Jadon Sancho. He circled Bernd Leno but saw his shot blocked on the line by Willian’s hand.

Chris Kavanagh signaled for a corner, but VAR Neil Swarbrick sent it to the monitor and stopped to send off Silva for dissent before he reached the screen.

Then came the inevitable decision of the penalty and the red card for Willian, but Fulham’s complete loss of discipline was on display when Mitrovic lashed out at Kavanagh to earn his own early shower.

Bruno Fernandes sent Leno the wrong way from the penalty spot and two minutes later United took the lead as Marcel Sabitzer headed in Luke Shaw’s low cross for his first United goal.

Fernandes then lashed out in United’s third in stoppage time as the nine-man Fulham were overtaken, but Keane suggested they needed Fulham’s help to cross the line.

“The priority was to go through to the next round, but I still think the manager will be very disappointed with what he saw,” he told ITV Sport.

“Of course Fulham self-destructed, but United were so poor it was unbelievable.”

Asked if United have been lucky in the FA Cup this season, he added: “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

“They found their way in the previous games and today it was more self-destructive from Fulham, and the home draws really helped them.

“You need luck in cup competitions and United have certainly had their fair share this season.

“It’s almost that they come to this expecting ‘we have quality players, we are Man United, we are going to win football games’.

“If they show up with that attitude for the semi-final Brighton will beat them, but you expect United to get their butts kicked before then.”

Keane also dismissed the suggestion that United were off the pace due to their Europa League exploits on Thursday night.

“I wouldn’t want to hear that kind of talk, even from the game the other night,” Keane added.

“I think it’s difficult if you have an away game in Europe and you travel again when you come back from an away game.

“He’s made one or two changes and that can’t be any kind of excuse for a bad performance, I’m not going to allow that.”

United will face Brighton at Wembley in hopes of lifting the FA Cup for a 13th time and adding to the League Cup won last month.

United were second best on balance of play before the penalty incident and although Erik ten Hag was happy with the result, he knows his team can play better.

“I am happy and pleased with the performance, but I see a lot of room for improvement,” he said.

“With the ball he was an example, we have to show more composure, recognize where the overload is, use that overload.

“In attacking the transitions today there were some good examples that we can definitely do better.”