Marcus Rashford

'Marcus Rashford is on smoke!'

Thursday 16 February 2023 19:49

Marcus Rashford was brilliant for Manchester United once again, during our mesmerising 2-2 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp.

After an entertaining, but goalless, first half of our Europa League play-off tie first leg, the game burst open when Marcus Alonso's back-post header found the net in the 50th minute.

It seemed to be the breakthrough the home side were looking for to go on and dominate the tie, but just seven minutes later United were ahead - and Rashford was central to our revival.

Who gets your vote for United's Man of the Match following the entertaining first-leg contest with Barcelona?poll

Who gets your vote for United's Man of the Match following the entertaining first-leg contest with Barcelona?

First of all, he latched on to Fred's well-weighted through ball, before expertly finding the bottom-left corner, even when it looked as though Barcelona's giant goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen had narrowed the angle.

It was Rashford's 22nd goal of an already excellent individual season - matching his previous personal-best tally from 2019/20.

He wasn't finished though. After picking the ball up from a corner, he shredded Raphinha for pace on the right before unleashing a dangerous ball across goal which, after a couple of pinball-type touches, ended up in the back of the net. It would go down as a Jules Kounde own goal.

Raphinha's goal levelled the game at 2-2, meaning it's now all to play for at Old Trafford next week, but Reds legend Rio Ferdinand only had one thing on his mind when he took to Twitter during the game.

The BT Sport pundit and former United defender described Marcus as being 'on smoke' at the moment, after his 14th goal since the World Cup.

He then went out to point out that Rashy is probably in the best form of his career.

“He is on a new level, a level he hasn’t been at until now, a level of consistency he hasn’t been able to stay at until now,” Rio wrote.

“A fit, Focused, direct, confident, deadly & potent Rashford is not to be messed with!”

We agree, Rio - and long may it continue!