Manchester United moved into Champions league spot after a 1-1 draw against West Ham, setting up a European showdown against Leicester on the final day of the season. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side came from behind to secure a point at Old Trafford, a very crucial point indeed.
Manchester United had a great first 20 mins, playing attacking football, more and more balls into the final third, looking threatening every time they had the ball, Bruno had a brilliant chance when Rashford whipped one in from the left side into the penalty box, Bruno being alone just couldn't catch the ball properly. On the stroke of half time, Pogba gave away a penalty after raising his arms on a well driven Declan Rice shot. Initial reaction showed it hit him in his face, but VAR confirmed hand ball and penalty was awarded, which was coolly converted by Antonio.
United have been conceing goals at very crucial times, and it isn't helping their cause. The momentum shift was clearly visible as the Hammers got their first goal.
But West Ham's lead did not last long. Mason Greenwood scored the equalizer after just 6 mins into the second half, with some brilliant one touch football with Martial.
On his 50th appearance for the club, Greenwood now has 17 goals across all competitions this season, no teenager has ever scored more goals in a single season in all competitions for Manchester United than Mason Greenwood (17) equaling with the likes of George Best ( 1965-66), Brian Kidd (1967-68) and Wayne Rooney (2004-05) not a bad company to be in. And Mason still has at-least 2-5 matches still to play depending on how far can United go in the Europa league.
Besides Greenwood all the other players had a pretty average game, David Moyes's side sat deep into their own half, crowded the center of the field and it hampered United's attempts to find little pockets of space, overall United lacked sharpness and creativity too. After the equalizing goal, United could have gone all guns blazing and tried for maximum available points, but a below par performance by the Reds secured just 1 point.
Apart from the hand ball mistake Pogba actually had a good game, with switching game play, long balls, had the highest pass completion, and looked really good. Bruno had a average game, along-with Martial and Marcus. Apart from the one beautiful assist to Greenwood, there was not much Martial did. Matic had a good game.
The defense too was solid, had some nervy moments, but came out on top. Bringing Aaron in the second half was very important, as Timothy was not having best of his games and was already on a yellow card. De Gea had a good game overall, a good comeback after the Chelsea blunder.
Meanwhile, the draw leaves West Ham on 38 points and means they are safe from relegation, going into their final game against Aston Villa.
What's Next!
United go into Sunday for a final showdown against Leicester, a mouth-watering final game of the season. Currently 3rd United are level on points with Chelsea and just 1 point ahead of Leicester. All the permutations and combinations are possible as there are still 3 teams rooting for 2 champions league spots. Chelsea face wolves, which wouldn't be a easy one either, as Wolves too are battling out with Spurs for their Europa league spot.
Stay tuned in for some brilliant Sunday football matches ahead!
Stay safe! Cheers!
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