Laughed at on Sunday by City in the Manchester derby (6-3), United won a forced victory over Omonia Nicosia in their first game in their history in Cyprus (2-3) and remain second in Group E of the Europe League with 6 points, 3 behind a Real Sociedad that did not disappoint in their visit to the Sheriff (0-2).
As he usually does in the Europa League, Erik ten Hag lined up Casemiro and Cristiano Ronaldo as starters, who starred in a good start to the game with two left-footed shots that found the answer of Brazilian goalkeeper Fabiano .
After the first quarter of an hour, Cristiano played for Bruno Fernandes, whose Vaseline before Fabiano’s exit hit the crossbar.
United completely dominated the match and Antony also appeared with several chances. In the first he amused himself in a one-on-one with Fabiano when he wanted to give the goal to a teammate and in the second he outshined the local goalkeeper, deflecting a left-footed shot from edge of the area of his fellow Brazilians.
Omonia surprised with 1-0
Omonia could do nothing but hang on and maintain a 0-0 lead, but Tyrell Malacia’s run down the middle allowed Bruno Sousa to break free before laying the ball off for Karim Ansarifard to beat David De Gea on his way out (33 ‘).
This unexpected goal completely changed the course of the match and United went from being completely dominators to being completely diluted by the end of the first half.
Rashford came on and changed the game
United were forced to react and did so after going through the locker room. Ten Hag got the changes right, first stopping a subdued Jadon Sancho to bring on Marcus Rashford at half-time, equalizing in the 52nd minute after a superb long ball from Bruno Fernandes.
Rashford was not controlled well at the start, but he reacted well, dribbling past Nemanja Miletic and firing a fine shot near the post from the edge of the box.
Martial returns after Rashford’s heel pass
Ten minutes later, Rashford was key again, assisting a superb spur pass to Anthony Martial. The Frenchman, who had already scored two goals on Sunday as a substitute in the derby disaster against City (6-3), simply jumped onto the field and took advantage of the gift from his teammate to frame himself and launch a perfectly powerful shot and placed next to the post.
Overcoming the scare, United had another good chance to close out the game without straining the engine, but Cristiano Ronaldo spoiled it by finishing a short pass from Diogo Dalot (73′) with Fabiano out of the goal. .
Cristiano assisted on 1-3
Denied before the goal, Cristiano this time dressed as a helper with a cross that Rashford pushed alone into an empty net to earn his brace (84′). The game seemed certain to be sentenced but Omonia spiced it up in the last minutes as in the next play they reduced the distances through another substitute, Nikolas Panagiotou, who, unmarked, finished off at will.
Uncertainty remained until the end although United did not suffer and Cristiano Ronaldo ended up scoreless after the last chance with everything in his favor where he missed his shot too much.
Source: La Verdad
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