Manchester: Juan Mata scored midway through the second half as Manchester United beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 in an FA Cup third-round replay at Old Trafford here on Thursday.
The Red Devils went into the game without a win against Wolves in their last five meetings and they thought the visitors were on course to make it six when Pedro Neto scored in the 10th minute.
Fred’s sloppy cross-field pass was cut out by Wolves and Neto was on hand to finish past Sergio Romero only for the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to disallow the goal after it was deemed that Raul Jimenez handled the ball in the build-up.
The ruled out goal proved to be a wake-up call for United as the hosts responded to their counter-attacking opponents with a break of their own.
United came close to scoring in the second half on 52 minutes when Daniel James was released down the left by Brandon Williams and he got away from Doherty before hitting a low shot across Ruddy and just wide of the far post.
Later, in the 67th minute Anthony Martial put Mata through on before the Spaniard to calmly dinked the ball over the onrushing John Ruddy to seal a 1-0 win.
However, United's celebrations were muted when their top scorer Marcus Rashford, who had come off the substitutes’ bench to replace James, played just 16 minutes before being forced off with what looked like a lower back injury which could rule him out of the weekend’s trip to Liverpool.
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Never want to feel like I’ve let my teammates, the club and most importantly the fans down so did my very best to carry on tonight and was gutted to come off.
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) January 15, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Top work from the lads to get into the next round 👊🏿 pic.twitter.com/ZLpxiqhtq3
">Never want to feel like I’ve let my teammates, the club and most importantly the fans down so did my very best to carry on tonight and was gutted to come off.
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) January 15, 2020
Top work from the lads to get into the next round 👊🏿 pic.twitter.com/ZLpxiqhtq3Never want to feel like I’ve let my teammates, the club and most importantly the fans down so did my very best to carry on tonight and was gutted to come off.
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) January 15, 2020
Top work from the lads to get into the next round 👊🏿 pic.twitter.com/ZLpxiqhtq3
United will lock horns with either Tranmere or Watford next, but that replay was postponed yesterday due to a waterlogged pitch. With the game rearranged for January 23, the Red Devils won't find out their opponents until three days before the fourth round tie.
