Substitutes Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial’s goals spared Manchester United’s blushes as they came from behind to defeat Omonia Nicosia 3-2 in the Europa League.
Manchester United headed into the half-time break in Cyprus at 1-0 down and you thought here we go again. They had plenty of chances to put the game out of reach from the hosts in the opening 45, they just lacked that cutting edge to take their chances, which Erik ten Hag’s substitutes added.
Rashford’s personal little renaissance with the club over the last few weeks has been vital to the positive results the club have achieved this term, seeing him and his manager honoured with the Premier League Player and Manager of the Month awards respectively. He has now been involved in eight goals in eight appearances for the club in all competitions this season (surpassing his total for 2021-22) thanks to his two goals and one assist tonight. He is having a positive impact whenever he is on the pitch for the Red Devils.
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Fans will be pleased to see Martial on the scoresheet again after grabbing a brace in Sunday’s forgettable derby defeat against Manchester City. His strike tonight was his 100th career goal. The Frenchman has long been a conundrum at United over the last seven years, he’s had some highs but a lot of lows. But tonight he showed that he still has that clinical edge to score goals for the team, something Cristiano Ronaldo failed to do with some great chances in a rare start for the veteran star.
The Portuguese forward tested Fabiano inside the opening 10 minutes as he was desperate to score that landmark 700th club career goal. United had a great chance to break the deadlock as Antony was played through down the right. Unselfishly, he tried to roll the ball across to Bruno Fernandes for a tap-in but the ball went behind his teammate.
94% pass accuracy
3 key passes
2 goals
2/3 ground duels won
1 shot off the woodwork
1/1 dribble completed
1 assist
Made the difference for United. ⭐
Fernandes hit the crossbar moments later as he tried to chip Fabiano. Antony tried to curl one in from the right but he was denied by a great save from Fabiano on the stretch. Despite having these great chances, the visitors soon became vulnerable to counter-attacks as Omonia grew with confidence. Neil Lennon’s side started to progress further forward and they soon opened the scoring.
United were then made to pay for not being ruthless. They were caught napping following their own free-kick on the edge of the box and Omonia broke forward with a swift and devastating attack through Bruno Felipe. He slipped the ball through to Karim Ansarifard who fired past David de Gea with a neat finish.
Ten Hag freshened things up at the break with Jadon Sancho and Tyrell Malacia making way for Rashford and Luke Shaw. It paid off within minutes as Rashford levelled things up to finish a fine move that involved Ronaldo.
The manager then called upon Martial to help United gain the lead. He replaced Fernandes and within moments he put his side in front, finishing off another great move by the visitors. It was his third goal in his last two matches and he has certainly done enough to warrant starting against Everton on Sunday. The game seemed wrapped up when Ronaldo provided Rashford a tap-in, having hit the post minutes before when he should have scored. But then out of nowhere, the hosts pulled one back through Nikolas Panayiotou to add some drama to the closing stages.
