Goal by goal: How United beat Cardiff 5-1
Manchester United returned to winning ways in style on Saturday. Here's our guide to each of the strikes registered by the Reds during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first match in charge as caretaker manager...
Marcus Rashford - 3 minutes - Cardiff 0 United 1
The perfect start was set up when Paul Pogba received a forward pass from Ander Herrera, fed Anthony Martial and looked to receive the flicked return ball from his fellow Frenchman, only to be upended by Aron Gunnarsson several yards outside the D. At the resulting free-kick, Pogba made a decoy run and Rashford fired it to the right of the wall with Cardiff goalkeeper Neil Etheridge rooted to the spot.
Booooooommmmmm get in !!!!
— David May (@DavidMay04) December 22, 2018
Ander Herrera - 29 minutes - Cardiff 0 United 2
Pogba was the instigator again and this time registered a pure assist by steering the ball away from Sol Bamba, cutting inside from the left and sweeping a pass towards Herrera. The Spaniard took a touch and with head down, drove a rising shot that looped beyond Etheridge after hitting Greg Cunningham en route.
MUTV pundit Ben Thornley: "It's a brilliant pass from Pogba to see the gap appear. Herrera had time to set his sights and unleash the shot. It took a bit of a deflection off the defender but it was going in anyway for me."
When Victor Camarasa reduced the Bluebirds' arrears with a 38th-minute penalty, awarded against Rashford for handball, the Reds quickly responded with the best team goal of the game. Martial drove forward to tee up a triangle of first-time passes with Pogba and Lingard, and then receive the ball back from the latter to beat Etheridge with a brilliant finish.
And people ask what the @ManUtd way is... 😂😂😂 #MartialGoal
— Danny Webber 🐝 (@DanielWebber81) December 22, 2018
The no.14 earned the Reds' penalty by surging into the Bluebirds' box and drawing a clumsy challenge from Bamba. Lingard then stepped up to take it himself and convert with a low strike to the right as Etheridge dived the other way.
MUTV pundit Ben Thornley: "That was a great penalty. Jesse tucked it away superbly; it was as close to the corner as he could have got it. That should be game over now."
Herrera, Andreas Pereira and Fred tenaciously took control in midfield and enabled Pogba to slide a perfectly timed through-ball fractionally to the side of centre-back Sean Morrison. Lingard collected it inside the area and rounded Etheridge to clinically complete his double and United's first five-goal haul in the Premier League since Sir Alex Ferguson's final game in 2013.
.@JesseLingard has 4️⃣ goals in his last 4️⃣ #PL outings!
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 22, 2018
💪💪💪💪 pic.twitter.com/DlYk8AC33U
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