UNITED SEE IT THROUGH
Maguire’s late show gets Solskjaer’s troops out of jail against combative Norwich
NORWICH CITY may be effectively doomed to the Championship next season. Yet they will not depart the elite without a fight.
An FA Cup tie that started in timid fashion, ended in drama. United, seemingly in control when they took a 51st-minute lead, instead relinquished control of the game when a Todd Cantwell equaliser took the game into extra time.
Even then the odds were further stacked in United’s favour when, in the dying minutes of normal time, Timm Klose had wrestled Odion Ighalo, United’s goalscorer, to the ground, rather than allow him a chance to win the game.
Against 10 men, the imbalance was slightly ridiculous. By the end United were playing with a front four of Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial, Ighalo and Marcus Rashford. With full-backs pushing on, Nemanja Matic nominally a centre-half and Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba in midfield, it was as close to all-out attack as is possible to get. Alex Ferguson would have approved.
And it was fitting that, with just two minutes remaining when United had their reward, it was supposedly their only real defender on the pitch who was the furthest man forward.
Pogba played in a delightful ball which Ighalo chased down well and cut back into a crowded area.
Martial got a touch but it was the unfortunate Ben Godfrey, guilty of a glaring miss earlier, who made the crucial deflection that allowed the ball to bobble across goal.
Amid the scramble, Harry Maguire swung out a leg, connected and Tim Krul was beaten. A captain’s role, he was submerged beneath his team-mates in the eerie silence now familiar to lockdown football. United march on to an FA Cup semi final, two cups still within their sights. Norwich merely have relegation to dwell upon.
Despite the inevitability of the hosts’ demotion to the second tier next season, Carrow Road would have been abuzz on an evening like this, their first FA Cup quarter-final for 28 years.
As such, it was hard to enter into the spirt of the occasion with just a few scouts, analysts and media dotted around. Everyone is used to the sight of no fans by now. It’s just nobody is used to how it feels: flat. The FA Cup is more important to supporters than to the clubs themselves so without their enthusiasm, it was left bereft.
For a while there was plenty of earnest endeavour from both teams in that opening 45 minutes, there was precious little quality and zero shots on goal.
Indeed, it was not until Juan Mata was robbed in midfield and Kenny McLean surged forward that there was anticipation and a shot of any kind. Sadly, McLean quickly doused any nascent excitement by skying his shot high into the stands.
There was a better chance for Norwich after 44 minutes, when Cantwell broke into space down the right and squared the ball for Lukas Rupp. As he lined up his shot, Maguire launched his body inbetween goal and ball and blocked a likely goal. Even then the ball dropped Emi Buendia and Luke Shaw was required to perform a second block.
However, those two chances gave a somewhat misleading perspective on the half in which United had 68 per cent possession. United’s issue was that, other than Fernandes’ forward passes, much of it was used unwisely.
Too many balls were laid square, too many additional passes attempted when a ball into space would have been better. They ended the half without a shot on target.
Ighalo was deputising for hat-trick hero Martial but the blame lay with the creators. Mata and Jesse Lingard could not get beyond their respective full-backs, Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis.
Scott McTominay and Fred laid a solid foundation in midfield but not much more. Against a side that has scored 25 goals in 31 league games, it seemed a touch cautious.
The sight of Martial, Rashford, Greenwood and Pogba on the bench promised something better for later. But United’s first-half performance
was more about industry than inspiration. Possession, though, should eventually produce opportunities. United’s came in the 51st minute. Maguire, far up the pitch, drilled in a ball for Shaw, who drove on and skipped past Buendia with ease.
Shaw cut the ball back into a crowded area where a prod from Mata forced it into the path of a lurking Igahlo, who would have been offside had Aarons not been lingering inexplicably deep on the right flank.
Ighalo, who has embraced playing for United like an eager competition winner, swivelled and raised his foot to direct it past Krul. Five goals now for the Nigerian, all in cup games, and what seemed like a desperate winter signing looks a touch more considered now.
With Greenwood and Rashford coming off the bench, United had a platform to go on and win convincingly. Yet Norwich found inspiration in adversity.
After 69 minutes, a swirling Buendia free-kick was deflected by Fernandes into the Godfrey’s path. But the centre-half’s brain was scrambled, running beyond the ball and deflecting it away from three yards out when he needed just the merest touch to score.
No matter. Two minutes later Onel Hernandez was allowed to cut inside from the right and Buendia eased the ball on to Cantwell.
Sizing up his chance from 25 yards, he went for swerve rather than power, the ball bending past Maguire and tricking Sergio Romero as it bent past him and in for an equaliser.