The FA Cup Awards: Pantilimon, Lukaku, & Martial

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

Turns out the FA Cup still has some magic left in it – who knew?! With the league delivering more fairytales than a Hans Christian Andersen binge, the Cup has sort of floated along unnoticed. This weekend, however, it was back with a vengeance, with each quarter-final game producing its own headline story. And so you can keep your one-season wonder Harry Kane to yourself – we're going to focus firmly on the Cup, the vinyl alternative to the Premier League's Tidal.

Did you know that Costel Pantilimon had gone from Sunderland to Watford this season? We didn't. To be honest, we weren't entirely sure he'd even left Manchester City, but the largest bench-warmer in the game had an afternoon to remember at the Emirates.

But, rather than standing out because of a string of impressive saves or stopping a penalty, Pantilimon contributed by wasting every last second he could as soon as Watford hit the lead. Booked in the first half for taking his sweet time about absolutely everything, he continued to blatantly cheat throughout, taking an age to collect the ball, place it on the floor and kick it, driving the home crowd mad as he did so.

The only way his intentions could've been more clear is if he'd started to take two steps forward and one step back while going through his various tasks before hoofing the ball back into play. Watford, two goals to the good, actually benefitted from his underhand tactics in the end: with Arsenal desperately trying to get back in it at the death, the time he shaved off through moving in slow motion might actually have made the difference.

The moral of the story here kids: don't cheat… unless you can get away with it and it's for the good of your team.

Since Romelu Lukaku left Chelsea, there have been many occasions when it was pointed out how much the soon-to-be-former champions could have done with the Belgian forward's services. But, having never been given a fair crack at the London club, his sale hadn't come back to bite Chelsea in the arse the way everyone else had hoped – until now.

In his previous games against his former employers, Lukaku has always failed to score, and the story looked much the same for most of their FA Cup quarter-final. Late on, however, he collected the ball in the left-hand channel and danced his way through the Chelsea defence, finishing confidently across the body of Courtois in to the opposite corner. Hunched on his knees in the corner in celebration – the entire Everton squad having piled on his back – he held his face for a while longer, the emotion clearly getting the better of him.

But if Chelsea thought a few tears were going to dampen his spirit for the rest of the game, they couldn't have been any more wrong. Latching on the ball on the opposition side of the box with the defence failing to trap him offside, he took a couple of measured touches before smashing the ball right down the middle of the goal, sealing both victory for his club and his own personal revenge in the most definitive manner.

Back when Anthony Martial was a wildly expensive joke, it was unthinkable that he'd be among the few positives for Manchester United this season – but hell, it's been that kind of year. Having fallen behind to yet another absolutely ridiculous Dimitri Payet free kick – whipped in with video game-like pace and precision – the once-feared Red Devils looked set to exit the Cup.

Late on, however, Martial sprang into action and dragged them back from the brink, forcing a replay that they're still likely to lose. Coming out of this Man Utd side with any sort of credit is a mission in itself, but add to that a near £60-million price tag, and it starts to seem an impossible task. This summer, when the club inevitably part ways with Van Gaal and rebuild (read: overspend) under a new manager, one of their key remaining assets will be the young Frenchman. Nobody would've predicted that at the start of the season.

@bainsxiii