West Ham United 1-2 Manchester United: 5 talking points

Manchester United survived a late surge as they edged past West Ham United 1-2 in the FA Cup Quarter Final replay at Upton Park’s Cup swan song. The result means that Manchester United travel to Wembley to face Everton in the semi-finals of the oldest running cup competition on the 23rd of April.

After an open first-half, 18-year old wonderkid Marcus Rashford broke the deadlock in the 54th minute when a smartly struck shot from the edge of the box found its way past Hammers’ keeper Darren Randolph and into the top corner. The lead was doubled 13 minutes later when Marouane Fellaini directed a deflected Anthony Martial strike around 2 yards from goal.

West Ham replied with a goal via centre-back James Tomkins with 11 minutes to go, but could not find that equaliser that would have taken the tie into extra-time.

Here are the 5 talking points of a riveting encounter at Upton Park:

A match worthy of a stadium farewell

Though the result was a bitter pill to swallow for Hammers fans, they will be pleased that their home ground for 112 years was given a grand-stand Cup farewell thanks to a nail-biting encounter. The game started with West Ham on the front foot with a couple of attempts at goal. As the half progressed, the away side found their groove – moving the ball around seamlessly and coming very close through Jesse Lingard.

The second half started in the same fashion as the first half ended as United kept throwing challenges at the Hammers defence. The 2 goals – a Marcus Rashford belter into the top corner and Marouane Fellaini’s tap-in were just rewards for a dominant 30 minutes.

West Ham got the incentive for a high-press after going two down and recovered one goal thanks to an unmarked James Tomkins header from a corner. A Cheikou Kouyate header in the 89th minute went in but was ruled out for offside. It was a heart-breaking, yet thrilling finish to what will be remembered as an FA Cup classic.