Aarons gift-wraps win for Rangnick’s uninspiring United
Norwich 0 Man Utd 1 Ronaldo 75 pen
WITH one arm around the neck of Cristiano Ronaldo, all of Norwich City’s good work was undone. Penalty to Manchester United and, of course, you-know-who proceeded to bury it.
This wasn’t a classic Premier League performance by United. Nor was it the type Ralf Rangnick will have wanted to see against a makeshift Norwich defence that lost its captain to injury and included a midfielder doing his best impression of a centre-back.
Norwich would have earned a well-deserved point, had Max Aarons not gifted United the chance to win by wrestling with Ronaldo for his 75th-minute penalty.
Canaries boss Dean Smith will be disappointed but not angry. He’ll watch this match back and believe if they keep playing like this, they’ll pick up points.
After 12 minutes, Marcus Rashford was bundled over by Grant Hanley on the edge of the box and referee Darren England awarded United a free-kick. It was soft, in truth, and Norwich weren’t happy.
This was a glorious chance for someone as talented as Bruno Fernandes. Instead, left-back Alex Telles took it and a nick off the six-man wall carried his shot on to the crossbar.
Ronaldo was strangely out of sorts. The first time he managed to threaten Tim Krul’s goal was after half an hour, but the goalkeeper easily collected his effort. United’s greatest chance of the first half then fell to the Portuguese after 36 minutes but he failed to bury it. He could have shot with his right foot but didn’t, instead choosing to cut back on to his left.
Krul was needed again when Harry Maguire’s header looked to be looping over him. He got back in time to tip the ball over and it remained 0-0 at half-time.
After 57 minutes, David de Gea stopped Pukki finding the top-left corner, as Norwich continued to look the likelier to score.
The penalty to United came and their chance to snatch the points. In his desire to deny Ronaldo from scoring, Aarons had dragged him down. England pointed to the penalty spot without hesitation and VAR was never going to overturn this decision. Ronaldo sent his spot-kick to the left, Krul dived to the right, and it was 1-0 to United.
De Gea had to deny Pierre Lees-Melou, and then Ozan Kabak, while Billy Gilmour went close from 20 yards.