Man United 3-2 Southampton: Solskjaer’s men edge out determined Saints
By Marc Walker
A late strike from Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku proved to be the winner as Southampton were edged out 3-2 at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.
The Saints held a 1-0 lead through Yan Valery at half-time, but two quick United goals from Andreas Pereira and Lukaku turned the game around.
A stunning free-kick from James Ward-Prowse levelled the game again but it was Lukaku who produced a typically brutal finish to win the three points for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.
Ralph Hasenhuttl named an unchanged side from Wednesday’s win over Fulham as he and his players looked to get some more points on the board.
If Saints were to get a result, they were going to have to be resilient defensively but also rely on Angus Gunn to make some important stops too.
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The 23-year-old ‘keeper was called into action twice to deny Romelu Lukaku in the first five minutes of the game; once to tip round the post and once to block a close-range effort with his body.
It was a fast start from the hosts, but Saints soon built some momentum of their own.
Jannik Vestergaard headed a James Ward-Prowse corner wide from a good position before good work from Nathan Redmond and Ryan Bertrand saw the latter go down inside the box.
Television replays showed that Chris Smalling was perhaps lucky to have seen his shirt pull on the Saints left-back go unpunished after Bertrand had got the wrong side of him.
Despite playing away at the intimidating arena that is Old Trafford and against a United side on the top of their game, Saints were playing with confidence on the ball and they grabbed the lead after 26 minutes through an unlikely scorer.
The ball was worked nicely over to Yan Valery on the right and he took full advantage of the space in front of him by advancing forwards and firing an unstoppable drive inside David De Gea’s near post.
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Having worked so hard to get a surprise lead, it was now a case of getting into half-time still a goal ahead.
A fightback from United was inevitable and Saints had to see off some dangerous moments in their box before the break to keep it at 1-0.
However, the home side did find an equaliser eight minutes into the second-half and there wasn’t too much that Saints could do about it.
Andreas Pereira ended a United counter-attack by shifting the ball onto his right foot and bending a superb strike into the far corner of Angus Gunn’s net to level the scores
Saints were now struggling to deal with the United attacks flooding forward and Romelu Lukaku completed a quick turnaround for his side by making it 2-1 shortly after.
The Belgian was allowed too much space to come inside and work the ball onto his right foot inside the box before curling a smart finish inside the far post.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side didn’t let their heads drop though despite the deficit and kept the frenetic pace of the second period going by drawing level.
As much as Yan Valery is an unlikely scorer, James Ward-Prowse’s recent form has seen him scoring regularly and it was the England man who netted his fifth goal in eight league games with a fantastic free-kick.
He placed the ball outside the box, lined the strike up in trademark fashion and found the top corner of the net with a perfect effort that left De Gea with no chance again.
Unfortunately for Saints, the drama was not finished there and United grabbed their winner with two minutes left as a loose ball broke for Lukaku to provide the brutal finish from just outside the area.
There was still time for the home side to be awarded a penalty after Stuart Armstrong tripped Marcus Rashford in the area, but Angus Gunn produced another moment of brilliance to keep Paul Pogba’s spot-kick out.
The game ended 3-2 to United but Saints can surely take the superb performance that they put in here forward into the rest of the season.