Manchester United‘s 19-year-old winger Anthony Elanga was targeted with vile racist abuse after missing a penalty against Middlesbrough on Friday night.
The attempt led to United’s elimination from the FA Cup and a number of social media users commented hateful slurs and used monkey emojis on Elanga’s page.
Meta, the company which owns Instagram, revealed that they took down a number of comments and an investigation is ongoing.
Anthony Elanga was racially abused online after missing a penalty for Manchester United
A number of social media users commented monkey emojis on Instagram
Manchester United were taken to extra time at Old Trafford and Elanga came off the bench, with Ralf Rangnick bringing him on for Marcus Rashford in the 82nd minute.
The game finished 1-1 in normal time after Jadon Sancho’s opener was cancelled out by Matt Crooks. Neither side could find a winner in extra time and the penalty shootout went to sudden death.
Elanga was the unfortunate player to miss, hitting his spot kick over the bar.
He looked disconsolate on the pitch on Friday night and was consoled by team-mates, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who also missed a penalty in the game.
In similar circumstances to the Euro 2020 final, he was then subjected to horrendous racist abuse online, as Bukayo Saka, Rashford and Sancho were last year.