A high-scoring second half saw Manchester United overcome Aston Villa in the EFL Cup third round at Old Trafford.
A dull performance seemed to be on the cards if the first 45 minutes were anything to go by. But after conceding minutes into the second half, Martial restored parity just 17 seconds after the restart.
United switched off again to go behind as Diogo Dalot scored an own-goal. But late goals from Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Scott McTominay sealed the win for Erik Ten Hag.
Flat start
After the disastrous start last time out against Villa, United looked better this time round. But not my much. We looked really flat.
Players won the ball back well and showed some intent and energy. But that final ball wasn’t there. Fred didn’t have a great first half, Donny was reasonably anonymous at this stage of the game.
Our forward players were constantly offside, we looked to threat in behind with the pace of Rashford and Martial up top, but they were barely ever onside, and it was so frustrating. We had three shots in that half, none of them on target. A big second half was needed.
Things went from bad to worse as the second half kicked off. Minutes after the break we lost possession high up the pitch again and Jacob Ramsey put the ball up the pitch for Ollie Watkins to be one on one and put a calm finish past Dubravka.
Fightback
But it didn’t last long. Martial equalised less than a minute later. Bruno held his run brilliantly and put the ball on a plate square for Martial to really liven up what could’ve been a very flat performance.
As the game looked set for an exciting finish, we switched off massively. We let them get in behind and Leon Bailey headed a ball from Ashley Young back across goal that Dalot poked at to try and defend but saw it into the back of the net. Poor.
Marcus Rashford brought us back into the game in the 67th minute. Malacia put the ball over the top for Eriksen to get on the end of and provide Rashford the ball to finish after some trickery and a calm tight finish in the bottom corner.
Bruno came to United’s rescue in the 78th minute. After he missed a couple of chances minutes before he came good in the end. Pouncing on some poor playing out of the back from Villa, Garnacho played the ball into Bruno, and he fired a shot from the middle of the box that took a deflection from Mings to give United the lead.
In stoppage time McTominay got that fourth goal. Garnacho continued to have a brilliant game off the bench as he put an inch-perfect ball into the box for Scott to poke home and secure the win.
United need to carry this confidence onto the last game before the World Cup as a potentially tough clash at Craven Cottage dawns on the weekend.