Before the meeting, it was not a problem to identify a favorite. Manchester United is unbeaten by the eleven queues and may soon come to the Top 4, while Southampton players are fighting for maintenance, and before today's match they were just above the inheritance zone. The Old Trafford fans were waiting for a show of the strength of their favourites. In the December clash of both teams a 2:2 draw fell.

Squads:

Manchester United: De Gea- Shaw, Lindelof, Smalling, Young- Pogba, McTominay, Pereira (82' Fred), Sanchez (52' Dalot)- Lukaku, Rashford (95' Chong)

Southampton: Gunn- Vestergaard, Yoshida (90' Gallagher), Bednarek- Bertrand, Hojbjerg, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Valery, Redmond- Austin (63' Armstrong)

From the very beginning the goalkeeper of the guests had a lot of work. For the first fifteen minutes, Pogba and the company fired three accurate shots at the opponent's goal. Southampton was the most dangerous of the fixed parts of the game. All head-to-head matches were won by Jannik Vestergaard, the highest defender of the Premier League. The game of "Saints" could really please you. They didn't let themselves be pushed to the defensive and applied high pressing on half of the opponent. The first goal was scored in the 26th minute. Yann Valery silenced Old Trafford. The French defender showed off with a hellishly strong blow from behind the sixteenth, not giving the goalkeeper the slightest chance to defend himself. For such hits it is worth watching the matches. When it seemed that "Red Devils" would immediately start to make up for the losses, the guests would carry out further attacks. At the end of the first half, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's charges had some very good opportunities to score a goal that they did not use. Therefore, they would go down to the locker room with one frame loss to their rivals.

There was no need to wait long for the alignment. Andreas Pereira decided in the 53rd minute to break through Valery's feat from the first part of the meeting. A Brazilian midfielder decided to take a technical shot from around 20 meters and the soccer ball landed straight in the window. The fans at Old Trafford simply went crazy! I have to say that I haven't seen two such beautiful hits in one match yet. The hosts did not intend to stop and moved on to the next attacks. You didn't have to wait long for the effects. Already in the 59th minute Romelu Lukaku took his team to the lead. A Belgian striker, after receiving a pass from Pereira, got rid of the defenders in the penalty field and with a shot at the very corner, defeated the goalkeeper. Solskjaer could only regret that he had previously given so little chance to these two players to play.

If someone believed that the previous hits were the most beautiful ones he saw today, he was wrong. In the 75th minute the judge whistled a free kick for Southampton. James Ward-Prowse approached the ball and hit the soccer ball in an exemplary way, not giving De Gea a chance to defend himself. All players of "Red Devils" were in shock. Pogba standing in the wall could only bite his head with disbelief. In the Theatre of Dreams today we had a spectacle worthy of the best football league in the world. When it seemed that the match would end in a draw, he decided to take Lukaku in his legs. In the 89th minute the Belgian sniper scored a goal at 3:2, thus proving his class. In the added time of the game, the referee dictated a penalty kick for the hosts. It seemed to me that Lukaku would approach the eleventh metre of the ball, which, after defeating the goalkeeper, could enjoy a hat-trick score. Paul Pogba did not intend to forgive, however, and it was a disastrous decision on his part, because Gunn sensed his intentions perfectly well. The final result of this competition is 3:2. Who would expect that a duel of two teams from opposite poles of the league table will bring us so much excitement. After this victory Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's charges were promoted to the Top 4.