It seemed like Man Utd’s “A team” would have an easy match in the fourth round of the FA Cup at the field of the unnamed Newport County when they took a 2-0 lead after less than 15 minutes of play, but in the end, “The Devils” red” had to spend a lot of energy to get an unconvincing 4-2 final victory.
Even though the opponent is only a team in the 4th place (League Two), coach Erik ten Hag still fielded the strongest squad with all the best first team players such as captain Bruno Fernandes, Varane, Dalot, Garnacho or Shaw, Lisandro. Martinez (both just recovered from injury). In addition, Casemiro had a comeback after a long period of recovery. Standing in the wooden goal is reserve goalkeeper Bayindir while Onana is busy attending CAN 2023.
It only took 7 minutes for MU’s super strong squad to score against “weak” Newport. Starting from Luke Shaw, Bruno Fernandes sensitively touched the ball for Garnacho to escape down the left wing and then returned it smoothly for the captain to finish in his forte, opening the score.
The gap soon increased. In the 13th minute, Dalot, rising high on the right wing, passed inside smoothly for young midfielder Kobbie Mainoo to make a simple cross-angle shot, defeating the opponent’s goalkeeper. This is the first goal of this 2005-born player for MU.
In the 18th minute, the score almost increased to 3-0 for MU if Garnacho’s thunderous left foot kick in the penalty area did not hit the crossbar. In fact, in this situation, if the young Argentinian star passes to a teammate in a more favorable position, the possibility of scoring a goal will increase significantly.
In a completely outmatched match, host Newport County suddenly had a goal to shorten the score. In the 36th minute, Bryn Morris made a powerful long-range shot, but the ball grazed Martinez’s head, making the trajectory more unpredictable and Bayindir had to give up.
In the first half, Antony still played weakly and ineffectively as always. It’s unclear how much patience coach Erik ten Hag will have with the student who has been with him since his time at Ajax but is now a complete disappointment at MU.
At the beginning of the second half, Newport continued to shock. From the cross on the left wing, Will Evans was one beat faster than Varane in the ball to cushion the ball from close range into the MU net.
Being equalized, MU of course had to raise their squad and try their best to attack to restore their honor, but like most matches this season, the “Red Devils” attacked quite confusingly and deadlocked even though the opponent was inferior in terms of score. every aspect.
But then MU also found a third goal in the 68th minute. From close to the 16m50 line, Luke Shaw launched a technical left foot kick aimed at the far corner. The ball hit the wooden frame and bounced off and Antony appeared at the right time and easily kicked the ball into the empty net.
By extra time, MU had set the score 4-2. “Missing” for most of the match, but striker Hojlund was present after Forson’s unsuccessful attempt to kick the ball into the net.