Europa League Roundup | Marcus Rashford sends Manchester United through to semifinals

04/21/2017

Marcus Rashford scored in the second period of extra time to send Manchester United through to the last four of the Europa League with a 2-1 win on the night and a 3-2 aggregate win over Anderlecht. But the victory was marred by injuries to talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo.

Carrying a precious away goal from the first leg, United were off to a great start when Henrikh Mkhitaryan once again opened the scoring in the 10th minute after the Armenian latched on to a pass from Rashford and fired into the bottom corner of the net.

Rojo was substituted by Daley Blind in the 23rd minute after colliding with teammate Eric Bailly and things got worse for United when Sofiane Hanni leveled things on the night with an away goal in the 32nd minute, smashing the ball past Sergio Romero from close range, after being assisted by Łukasz Teodorczyk.

United came out in full swing in the second half and should have regained the lead in the 49th minute but Jesse Lingard could not get sufficient contact on a cross from Luke Shaw to steer the ball into an empty net. Paul Pogba and Ibrahimovic also missed scoring chances for United as the tie moved into extra time, despite the home side dominating the second half.

Things did not start well for the Red Devils in extra time as Ibrahimovic had to be substituted by Anthony Martial in the 91st minute with a serious looking knee injury. But United were rewarded for their persistence at the start of the second period of extra time when Rashford collected a headed knock down from Marouane Fellaini before producing a neat turn and firing low past Anderlecht keeper Ruben via a deflection. The strike sealed United’s place in the last four of the Europa League.