Manchester United went into full throttle in the FA Cup 4th round fixture vs Wigan Athletic to emerge as winners with a dominant score line of 4-0. Now, that’s The Red Devils squad that we all live to see!
The match didn’t start off positively for Manchester United as they gave away the ball cheaply on a few occasions via Schweinsteiger and Anthony Martial, where both the players weren’t enjoying their spell on the pitch.
The 1st chance eventually fell to Wigan but the shot from Connolly was saved by Sergio Romero.
Manchester United were largely ineffective in the opening periods as they were bossed around by a hard working and smart playing Wigan side but United finally found some offensive range in the 30th minute, only to bottle it over again.
Henrikh Mkhitrayan was clear on goal after a great run by Anthony Martial and a good ball by Fosu-Mensah to Mkhitaryan who shot the ball wide. A gaping, clear opportunity but United missed to capitalize on it.
Wigan had a chance to score in the 40th minute but they missed it, as well.
AND BOY, THEY MUST BE REGRETTING IT NOW.
Just after 4 minutes, Manchester United scored the 1st goal of the game as Schweinsteiger whipped in a super cross and it was Maroune Fellaini who thumped a header into the back of the net from 5 yards out.
44 minutes played. Mancheter United 1- 0 Wigan Athletic.
Wigan almost went level in the 54th minute after Sergio Romero made a howler of a mistake but he also quickly made amends to maintain a clean sheet.
And again, after 3 minutes, it was the French sensation Anthony Martial who whipped in a cross from the left and it was Chris Smalling who almost shouldered the ball into the net to make it 2-o for United.
Martial had eventually grown into the game after being given a starting opportunity, finally making good use of his skill as he is generally not a regular starter under Jose Mourinho.
Martial silenced his critics yet again by setting up Henrikh Mkhitaryan for another United goal as he provided a brilliant assist for Mkhitaryan to score in the 74th minute.
Mkhitaryan made no mistake to head the ball in from the cross to make it 3-0 and it was game, set and match for Manchester United.
Wigan, who had started the game with so much to offer had started to look jaded and off-track in the 2nd half with United now firmly i the driving seat. The United team, featuring non-regulars had eventually started to click really well with Anthony Martial being the standout player.
It was finally Schweinsteiger who got the 4th goal of the United outfit, as he almost shot a volley-cum-overhead-kick-cum-I-don’t-know-what-it-was shot into the net to give some more glimmer to the score line and make it 4-0 to Manchester United.
Anthony Martial later scored to cap off a great show from him but his goal was disallowed.
Nevertheless, it was a performance to celebrate for Manchester United who although playing with multiple non first team players, managed to let the game grow on them and came up pretty well to win with a commanding scoreline.
And the march to glory goes on!
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