Rashford scores brace as Manchester United thrash Leicester
Marcus Rashford’s brace and a goal from Jadon Sancho helped Manchester United thrash Leicester City 3-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
The results sees the Red Devils stay in third place but close the gap on second-placed Manchester City to just three points in the Premier League standings.
The visitors, however, started the match on the front foot.
De Gea helps United weather early storm
United had to thank goalkeeper David De Gea, who produced two quality saves in the game’s early stages to prevent his side from falling behind.
The Spaniard saved two certain goals within the first twenty minutes, first denying Harvey Barnes one-on-one and then keeping out Kelechi Iheanacho’s header with a full-length diving save.
United weathered the early storm and made Leicester pay as they took the lead in the 25th minute thanks to Rashford’s strike.
Bruno Fernandes played a majestic outside-of-the-boot pass to open up the Foxes defense to find the Englishman, who made no mistake in firing past Danny Ward.
United should have been 2-0 ahead before the halftime whistle, but Diego Dalot failed to make contact with Fernandes’ clipped pass.
The Red Devils also had two glorious opportunities after the break but failed to convert the clear-cut chances.
Lisandro Martinez headed wide from a free header, while Rashford was also denied by Ward, all within 6 minutes of the restart.
Eric ten Hag’s side finally doubled their advantage when Rashford calmly picked his spot to drill past an onrushing Ward following Fred’s timely weighted pass.
Five minutes later, it was 3-0 as Fernandes once again played into the path of Sancho, who tucked in into the bottom corner to put the game beyond doubt.
Wout Weghorst should have made it 4-0 with two minutes left but the Dutch striker missed a sitter as Ward once again thwarted United’s siege on goal.
The final result means that De Gea has equalled Peter Schmeichel’s record of having kept the most clean sheets (180) in Manchester United’s history.
Photo credit: IMAGO Andrew Yates / Sportimage