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MOTD: Manchester United 5-1 FC Midtjylland

By on February 25, 2016

Eighteen-year-old Manchester United debutant Marcus Rashford did what an experienced team of United international’s could not: bury FC Midtjylland in the Europa League Round of 32 tie. The young Englishman scored two crucial goals to claw his team back after going down, opening the floodgates for United to make a statement win. United turned around a deflating 2-1 loss in the first leg with a resounding 5-1 victory to take them into the Round of 16.

Injuries forced Van Gaal to start Rashford and fellow youngsters Joe Riley and Gullermo Varela, and it was the young starlets whom impressed the most with their vigor and intensity, coming to United’s rescue when it seemed that Midtyjlland might just have a chance to knick the win. Pione Sisto had given the visitors a surprise lead in the first half and as Juan Mata also missed a penalty, the odds began to stack back up against United.

Before a football was even kicked, United were dealt the first blow as Anthony Martial limped dejectedly off the pitch with an injury during warm-ups. David de Gea suffered an injury during the warm-ups before the first leg (Sergio Romero started I’m goal tonight) and Wayne Rooney is also on the sidelines for a number of months. If Van Gaal appeared to be playing a second-string side, it was out of necessity, not out of lack of respect for a competition that is the Red Devils’ best shot at a Champions League place next season.

Even in such a weakened condition, the home side were always in control of the match, ending with twenty-five shots to Midtjylland’s two, and seventy-one-percent of possession. In just his third start of 2016, Memphis Depay was electric down the left wing, terrorizing a panicked Midtjylland late on as the main contributor to United’s first goal, winning the penalty for their fourth and scoring the fifth.

This was Van Gaal’s biggest win in a year-and-a-half at Old Trafford, and while it was hardly their most convincing performance of Van Gaal’s tenure, that mattered little come the final whistle.

Rashford, who had learned he would start just a few minutes before kickoff, grasped his big moment with two hands, testing Midtjylland goalkeeper Mikkel Andersen early on with a confidently driven effort in the eighteenth minute.

Yet United’s defensive frailties were once again exposed by Sisto, hero of Midtjylland’s first-leg win, as the Uganda-born forward bagged an opener with the visitor’s first substantial sight of goal in the match. United’s defense failed to pressure Sisto as he received the ball of the edge of the area, turned on a dime and created two yards of space far too easily. His shot from fifteen yards was weak, but had just enough accuracy to bobble past Romero into the bottom-left corner of the net

Memphis Depay pulled United level within five minutes, driving down the byline form the left and seeing a driven cross deflected into the back of the net by Nikolay Bodurov, and although Mata missed a penalty that Depay had won on the brink of the half, Rashford completed the comeback on the other side of the half. Mata cut a deep, overhit cross back into the middle from the left side of goal and Rashford pipped ahead of his marker to guide a cool finish home. He doubled United’s lead in the seventy-fifth minute, tucking Varela’s cross from the right into the back of the net, and Midtjylland became increasingly frustrated.

Depay won a penalty in the eighty-ninth minute, with his shot hitting Kian Hansen’s hand, and Ander Herrera succeeded from the spot. Almost immediately after the restart, Andre Romer’s temper boiled over, with the defender needlessly dragging down Depay to earn his second yellow of the match. Depay finally got his goal, United’s fifth, late in stoppage time, shaking off two defenders down the left and drilling a low effort into the bottom-left hand corner of the net from twenty yards out.

The relief of a win and safe passage through to the Europa League Round of 16 was immense for the home crowd at Old Trafford.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.