Martial AWES
MAN UTD ..... 2 LASK .............. 1
MANCHESTER UNITED players who took a knee before winning their Europa League tie last night have been backed by UEFA president Alexander Ceferin.
United defeated Austrian side LASK 2-1 – with goals from Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial – to win 7-1 on aggregate and make it into the last eight.
The win followed news on UEFA’S stance, which is set to signal a stronger line on racism in response to players in Europe standing up to be counted. Ceferin said: “It has
scoreline from the first leg, LASK had proved stubborn opponents in Austria, with three of United’s five goals coming in the last eight minutes, as the hosts ultimately folded.
United conjured the first chance after three minutes, Fred spraying the ball to Juan Mata, whose cross for Ighalo, unmarked just outside the six-yard box, was blocked by Andreas Andrade.
LASK defender Andrade hit the bar with a looping header after 10 minutes, team-mate Philipp Weisinger dragging the loose ball just wide as the visitors looked to salvage some pride from the first leg.
With so many United changes and players rusty, there was understandably little fluency or rhythm to their play early on, characterised by misplaced balls, overhit passes and mistimed challenges.
LASK continued to threaten at the other end, Rene Renner crossing just before the half-hour for Marko Raguz, whose glancing header flew just over the bar.
When United did get in behind the LASK defence, they were unable to make it count.
A counter-attack in the 38th minute, involving Jesse Lingard and James, was thwarted when Weisinger blocked the latter’s cross.
James should have made it 1-0 to United in the 52nd minute, but was unable to turn in a cross from Williams.
It proved a costly miss, with LASK taking the lead three minutes later, Weisinger curling a delightful 25-yard shot beyond the reach of Sergio Romero.
To United’s
credit,
they responded swiftly, Mata putting Lingard through on goal, the latter finding the net for the equaliser, 93 seconds after going behind.
United posed more of an attacking threat with the introduction of Tahith Chong, while Solskjaer also brought on record £89million signing Pogba.
But it was fellow substitute Martial who plundered the winner two minutes from time, after some fine interplay with Mata, the Frenchman rolling the ball in for the Red Devils’ winner.