Today, Manchester United registered a very hard working victory against Champions struggling team Reading in a 3rd round of FA Cup at Old Trafford. In the early kick-off today, Manchester United won over Reading by a 2-0. With a win over Reading, Manchester United registered a 5th win in a row under their new caretaking manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer. Ole Gunner Solskjaer becomes to the second manager for Manchester United to have a 100 per cent win record in the opening 5 games. He equalled the record set by Sir Matt Busby in 1946/47 season. After Having the worst start in the 28 years, Manchester United sacked Jose Mourinho and brought Solskjaer as a caretaking manager in mid-December. Since then Manchester United won their all 5 matches scoring 16 goals and conceding only 3 with two clean sheets. In their 5 game winning streak, they beat Cardiff City(1-5), Huddersfield (3-1), Bournemouth (4-1), Newcastle(0-2) and Reading (2-0).
Today Solskjaer made 9 changes that won over Newcastle in a mid-week match. Both star player Sanchez and Lukaku brought in the starting XI while two teenagers James Garner and Tahith Chong successfully wrote their name on Manchester United bench. For Reading, Callum Harriott made a comeback after 2 years injury and started the match along with England U-17 World Cup winner Danny Loader.
The first real attempt in the game came from the highly confident Manchester United. Alexis Sanchez's shot from outside of the box just missed the frame and went over the bar. Just a later after Sanchez chance, Romelu Lukaku’s powerful shot in the near post was saved by Cardiff keeper Jaakkola. In the 21st minute, Manchester United midfielder Fred scored a goal but was ruled out by the referee after linesmen showed the off-side to his goal. While checking that goal by video assistant referee (VAR), Fred was found offside but before that goal referee found that Mata was tackled inside the box and referee awarded a penalty for United.
Juan Mata made no mistake from a penalty spot and scored a goal from the spot. After conceding a goal, Reading played a much-improved football and got some wonderful chances to level the score in the first half. They couldn’t capitalize those chances and unfortunately, they conceded the second goal. In the late stage of first-half, Manchester United double their lead. Romelu Lukaku beat the Reading keeper on a one versus one and scored the goal from a very narrow-angle in an empty goal post. Alexis Sanchez made a beautiful assist to Lukaku’s goal. Reading were so unlucky to find themselves two-goal behind the first-half.
Despite being 2-0 down, Reading played very confidently in the second half. United keeper Sergio Romero made a couple of brilliant save to deny Reading from scoring. The only highlighting moment for a Manchester United in the second half was the introduction of 17-year-old Tahith Chong on the pitch in the 60th minute of the match in a place of Juan Mata. Chong played an average game but made some brilliant moves in his 30 minutes. Reading front players penetrated United back line so many times but still, they couldn’t score the goal and lost the match by 2-0. Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford got the brilliant chance to extend their lead in very last minute of the match but he couldn’t score on a one versus one with the Reading keeper. Despite having a 2-0 win, Manchester United keeper Sergio Romero was awarded a man of the match for his wonderful saves.
Manchester United successfully through to the fourth round of the FA Cup but their problems on back line were still seen against Reading. It's considerable for today's game as United had a starting line-up that never played together as a team but still, they need to do a lot of hard work in their back line. They also need to look at the physical fitness of their player. Again their star player Alexis Sanchez leave the pitch at an hour mark after he had a hamstring problem. United have now 8 days break to prepare for the match against Tottenham in the Premier League. It will be the first real test for Manchester United's new boss Ole Gunner Solskjaer. Tottenham is currently in the third place, they already went into the 4th round of FA Cup after they beat Tranmere Rovers by 7-0. Tottenham will surely miss their star in-form player Heung-min Son against Manchester United who will join his national team to represent in the Asia Cup.
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