Manchester United on Tuesday climbed two places up to second in the Premier League after Marcus Rashford scored deep into stoppage-time to give them a fortuitous 1-0 home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The result left United on 30 points from 15 games, two behind champions and leaders Liverpool, who visited Newcastle United yesterday, while Wolves stayed 12th on 21 points.
Rashford gave United the win when it seemed that the game was heading for a goalless stalemate, with his left-footed shot taking a deflection off Romain Saiss and beating goalkeeper Rui Patricio at the near post.
Photo: AP
Rashford acknowledged that United ground out the win after a labored performance, although manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer deployed an adventurous formation with three forwards behind striker Edinson Cavani.
“Today was tough, but we expected a tough game and managed to get over the line,” Rashford told the BBC. “It’s the deciding goal. Probably not the most beautiful, but we will take what we can get.”
Wolves seemed to have done enough to earn a point after soaking up United pressure in the closing stages, but they were undone from a seemingly innocuous move as Rashford picked up a long Bruno Fernandes pass on the right, cut inside and with little support in the penalty area, he hit a hopeful shot which wrong-footed Patricio.
Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo rued his team’s lapse of concentration in the dying minutes, but said that they needed to put the disappointment behind them quickly amid a busy schedule.
“This is football and a learning process,” the Portuguese told Amazon Prime. “It’s cruel in the moment, but you can’t stay feeling sorry.”
Solskjaer was delighted with his side’s ability to grind out another late win, but he was also cautious about United’s chances of winning their first league title since 2012-2013 in Alex Ferguson’s last season in charge.
“I am very boring, but we cannot get too far ahead of ourselves,” Solskjaer told the BBC. “We have got to a decent position at the moment, but the season hasn’t even reached the halfway mark. It’s the first win in the league for me against them. There have never been many goals in the games, but for me, this is a big step forward — that you don’t play well, but you win.”
Solskjaer, who netted one of the most memorable late winners for United in a 2-1 victory against Bayern Munich in the 1998-1999 UEFA Champions League final, pointed out that building a team capable of turning draws into wins was a demanding task.
“We’ve got a group now that is more robust both mentally and physically. We have gone through some tough training periods, played loads of games and they are getting fitter and fitter,” the 47-year-old Norwegian said. “The fitter you are the more you can do. But mentally as well, it gives you a boost knowing you can win games towards the end. We didn’t perform as well as we wanted to, but we won a game against a very difficult side to play against.”
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