Manchester United 1-0 Wolves: 5 Hits and Flops as the Red Devils progress | FA Cup 2019-20
Manchester United hosted Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford in the FA Cup third-round replay as the first match at the Molineux ended in a 0-0 draw. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer named his starting XI with one eye on the Liverpool game this Sunday, while Wolves started with a stromg team.
The match started with Manchester United having more of the ball and quite expectedly, Wolves were set-up to counter-attack, something that they are known to do really well. Both teams had opportunities to open the scoring in the first period and the visitors had a goal disallowed for handball by the VAR.
Daniel James missed two one-on-one opportunities as he failed to beat John Ruddy, which kept the scoreline 0-0 as we headed into the break. In the second half, the Red Devils were on top of Wolves from the start but they were struggling to break the visitors down, and it needed a touch of class from Juan Mata to break the deadlock and give United a deserved lead.
After that, it was all about keeping a clean sheet and the hosts did exactly that. It was a good performance by the Red Devils, which was somewhat tarnished by an injury to Marcus Rashford, who came on in the second half. Nevertheless, Manchester United progressed to the FA Cup fourth round and here, we are going to take a look at the hits and flops from the game.
#5 Hit - Anthony Martial
Manchester United lined up in a 4-4-2 formation against Wolves, with Juan Mata on the right, Daniel James on the left and Anthony Martial up top with Mason Greenwood. It was the Frenchman who was causing the most problems to the Wolves backline because he was constantly dropping off, which allowed the likes of James and Greenwood to make runs in behind the visitors' defense.
On the day, Martial racked up four key passes, along with three shots on goal, with one of them on being on target. He assisted United's winner, after shrugging off a Wolves defender and putting it on a plate for Mata. The 24-year-old was bringing his teammates into play at every opportunity and one can say that it was a mature performance from the Frenchman.