Manchester United defeated Aston Villa 4-2 on Thursday night to secure their place in the Carabao Cup’s fourth round.
Manchester United twice overcame deficits to accomplish this.
Following Villa’s 3-1 victory over United in the Premier League on Sunday, the two teams met for the second time in five days, but an entertaining first half was lacking.
Due to the hosts’ lack of interest and the visitors’ poor ball skills, neither team was able to get a shot on goal. Thankfully, the game erupted into life with two goals in the first two minutes of the second period.
Jacob Ramsey made a brilliant forward charge to find Watkins down the left, and the striker lifted his attempt past Martin Dubravka, who was making his United goaltending debut, for a lead Villa would hold for only a brief period of time.
Diogo Dalot’s raking pass split open Villa’s defense for Bruno Fernandes, who squared for Martial to finish well into the bottom corner. The Red Devils responded right away.
It took Unai Emery’s team longer to score their second goal than it did for United to respond to their first; it was 12 minutes before the visitors at Old Trafford took the lead at Dalot’s expense.
Immediately rewarding Emery for a triple substitution he had made just two minutes earlier, the Portuguese defender deflected Leon Bailey’s header beyond Dubravka from a clear distance.
After witnessing Emery’s risk pay off, Erik ten Hag played his own hand with three substitutions and won five minutes later as Christian Eriksen confused the Villa defense. When the ball slipped past Tyrone Mings and Calum Chambers, Rashford was able to nip in, maintain his composure, and score the equalizer.
When Robin Olsen immediately passed the ball to Alejandro Garnacho, who fed Fernandes, the transformation from a tediously passive game to a delicious glass of Carabao appeared to be complete. The 28-year-shot old’s took a strong deflection off Mings, catching Olsen off guard and advancing United to the Carabao Cup fourth round.
Late in the game, Scott McTominay hit the crossbar and then put the game’s winning goal on the board by outrunning Mings and putting Garnacho’s cross in.
Man Utd player ratings
GK: Martin Dubravka (6); RB: Diogo Dalot (5), CB: Victor Lindelof (7), CB: Harry Maguire (7), LB: Tyrell Malacia (8); CM: Scott McTominay (8), CM: Fred (6), AM: Bruno Fernandes (9), RW: Donny van de Beek (6), ST: Anthony Martial (7), LW: Marcus Rashford (8).
Subs: Alejandro Garnacho (8), Anthony Elanga (6), Christian Eriksen (8), Casemiro (N/A), Lisandro Martinez (N/A).
Aston Villa player ratings
GK: Robin Olsen (5); RB: Ashley Young (6), CB: Ezri Konsa (6), CB: Calum Chambers (5), LB: Ludwig Augustinsson (5); CM: Douglas Luiz (6), CM: John McGinn (7), CM: Boubacar Kamara (6); RW: Jacob Ramsey (7), ST: Danny Ings (6), LW: Ollie Watkins (7).
Subs: Emiliano Buendia (6), Leon Bailey (6), Tyrone Mings (6), Matty Cash (6), Lucas Digne (6).
