Marcus Rashford is currently the man of the hour within the Manchester United community and deservedly so. His game winning goal in extra time powered the Red Devils through to the Europa League semi-finals. It really would have been a crying shame had United not won this match given their domination in scoring opportunities.
So many prime scoring chances not converted in this one, numerous opportunities squandered, but in the end you only need to win by one. Here’s video of the Marcus Rashford game-winner:
The winner. pic.twitter.com/8NowlmO9DK
— UnitedReview (@TheUtdReview) April 20, 2017
United’s win came at a very high cost. Both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo left the game due to injury, and it looked pretty serious. Follow the links for more on each situation.
Marcus Rashford is a top ten trending term worldwide on Twitter right now, and justifiably so as his conversion ended a long match filled with the frustration of numerous golden chances that weren’t completed.
Here’s just a sampling of some of the missed chances that we all saw tonight, but there were many more:
-the major Jesse Lingard mistake as he passed off to Luke Shaw for the finish, in a very off game for the recent recipient of a new contract extension. Of course, when Luke Shaw is doing your finishing, it’s not the optimal opportunity anyway.
-the Marcus Rashford one-on-one breakaway which somehow didn’t even yield a shot on goal
-the second half opportunities from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba when they were in very close range
-Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan chances in extra time
Of course, pretty or ugly, they all count the same as long as you win. Man United are now through to the semi-finals, and in a field of Lyon, Celta Vigo and Ajax, they will be the consensus favorites. They will receive their semi-final draw tomorrow at midday.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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