Rashford’s work rate leaves Mourinho marveling
VIGO, Spain — Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho heaped praise on Marcus Rashford’s desire to improve afterthe19-year-old’sbrilliant freekick handed the English giant a 1-0 Europa League semifinal, first leg win at Celta Vigo on Thursday.
One moment of magic from the England international settled a tight encounter as he pulled his strike across Celta Vigo goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez into the far corner 23 minutes from time.
“The freekick is work. He works at it every day. Sometimes the training session finished and he keeps working with my assistant,” said Mourinho.
“His freekick is fantastic and I don’t think the goalkeeper has any chance because the shot is very fast.”
Rashford and United could havehadmoreofanadvantage to take back to Old Trafford for the second leg on May 11.
Alvarez made a string of first-half saves to deny Rashford, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jese Lingard.
However,Mourinhopraised Rashford’s ability to handle the pressure since Zlatan Ibrahimovic’sseasonwasendedby a cruciate ligament injury.
“He worked really hard and created problems for them. He had a fantastic shot in the first half that (produced) a beautiful save,” added Mourinho. “He is training a lot, he trains, he practices, he enjoys that extra work. It is marvelous to see.
“Zlatan is not here, that position is not Paul (Pogba’s) favorite position, but Marcus made a great freekick.
“The shot was very fast, the keeper made a movement but I think it was impossible to stop.”
Mourinho hailed a solid overall performance from United that takes it closer to a return to the Champions League next season should it go on to win the competition for the first time.
However, he lamented not having killed the tie off given Celta’s excellent record away from home in Europe this season.
“It is a good result, but it is short,” he added.
“It could have been better, 0-1 is a short result and seeing Celta’s trajectory in the Europa League they definitely deserve respect.”
Celta’s frustration spilled over in the closing stages as United efficiently ran down the clock.
Celta striker John Guidetti said the Spaniards should learn from Mourinho’s streetwise tactics.
“At the end of the day it’s a set-piece that gets us,” said the Swedish international.
“After that Mourinho has got a lot of experience and he just tells his players: ‘Game’s over, game’s finished, 1-0, we’re not playing anymore’. You could see they turned 15 minutes at the end into three minutes of football. That’s what he does best.”
Guidetti, though, believes Celta can take heart from not just its results on the road in the Europa League this season, but also eliminating European champion Real Madrid from the Copa del Rey by winning at the Santiago Bernabeu back in January.
“The United fans expect more than sitting back and taking a 0-0 draw, so I think we are going to have even more space,” he added.
“Last year we scored three goals away against Atletico Madrid to go through (in the Copa del Rey) and their defenseisverystrong,andthis year we won 2-1 at the Bernabeu and they are almost in the Champions League final.
“We know we can do it.”