The hot-headed football game gave a dreary result in the favor of United fans. The home fans who had come to watch the Red devils win convincingly had to gladden themselves with expectations of a win in next game, as they always have been doing this season.
Absolutely magnificent from start to finish, the game was a nail-biter.
A true test of temperament on the field, emotion of fans on the stands and passion for football for the teams was the game other night. Pleasurable from the start and unsatisfying in the end was the game for United fans. A mouth-shutting performance to be displayed and the longing to defeat big names of Europe was the goal of respective Managers, Mourinho and Lampard.
As good in the start were Man United same was Derby County in the end. An enchanting beginning to the game was give by Mata with his exquisite left footed kick in the bottom left corner. The build up was far more exemplary which began with a sprint from Martial in the left flank to a deft touch by Lukaku towards Lingard who eventually gifted an easy touch to Mata in the right.
Lukaku got a plentiful opportunities but all wasted. Only way Lukaku seems to be scoring is, if the width and height of post increases, either to get his header that usually goes over the bar into the net or his shots that are wide of the posts.
Gary Wilson’s divine dipper off from more than 30 yards was certainly the game changer. Liverpool’s loanee and Welsh international struck a brilliant free-kick which left no chance for Romero to stop the ball from disturbing the nets.
Derby’s build up play was still on and their threat creation did pay them causing the Argentine goalkeeper to lay his hand on the aerial ball outside the box, which eventually caused him a red card. Seldom do we see this happen. Lee Grant came in as his replacement and proved his worth as an experienced campaigner.
It was not long that Derby took the lead in the 85th minute from a lucky return of Grant’s hand. But when the candle of hope seemed to be dampening there came a perfect cross of Dalot’s boot to head the ball into goal by Fellaini in the added time.
If you are an underdog coming into the game, you’ll fancy your chances in penalty kicks, so did Derby. Taking the game to sudden death and scoring 8 out of 8, Derby just needed a miss from a United player but who would have thought it would be Jones to grant Derby way forward.
