Manchester United secured an emphatic win over Villarreal by a 2-1 scoreline. The Red Devils dominated headlines after a revengeful win over the Spanish side.
The game started taking pace from the first whistle itself as Villarreal were more active in the first half. Their first chance came in the opening 10 minutes. Diogo Dalot was finding it difficult to deal with Arnaut Danjuma who was denied a chance by David De Gea.
Villarreal were pushing for their first goal and came the closest when a well-placed corner landed perfectly For Alberto Moreno. He, however, kicked it straight over the bar and the chance was gone. Again, David De Gea made a couple of good saves and made sure that United doesn’t leak any goals in the first half.
The second half started brightly for Villarreal again and their constant attacking threat was a warning to Manchester United. Their first goal came in the 54th minute after Paco Alcacer scored from a beautiful finish.
Villarreal’s goal was an initiator for Manchester United as the players started to play aggressively to push Villarreal into their own box.
Manchester United got the leveller through Alex Telles. It was Bruno Fernandes who provided an inch-perfect cross through a free-kick from the corner of the box. Alex Telles then hit a well-connected volley which went past Villarreal defenders. It was a well-planned goal by the duo.
Both the teams started pushing for the winning goal but it was Manchester United who were playing more attacking football. But they were still lacking the cutting edge.
It was not late until Jesse Lingard came on for Mason Greenwood in the 89th minute. Edinson Cavani won the ball just close to the Villarreal box and passed it to Fred, who provided a dangerous cross into the box.
Jesse Lingard then showed great reflexes and quickly passed the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo. The rest was done by the legendary striker who hit the shot from a very tight angle and the fans went berseck.
3 – No player has scored more 90th minute winning goals in Champions League history than Cristiano Ronaldo (3, level with Sergio Agüero). Talisman. pic.twitter.com/kflYqaAf80
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 29, 2021
Old Trafford was lifted with joy as Manchester United took their Europa League final revenge.
It was a breathtaking match to watch.
Manager’s words after the match:
The Manager had huge amount of praise for David De Gea who had saved Manchester United by his world-class saves.
As reported by Metro, he said:
“Thankfully we had the best goalkeeper in the world tonight. David was fantastic, he did absolutely brilliant tonight but I didn’t like how open we were. We wanted to go more attacking, we played with two no.8s, wide wingers, a centre-forward and Scotty was left a little bit on his own defensively. The two centre-backs did well to stop a few counter-attacks but David was exceptional.”
What’s next:
Manchester United return back to Premier League action as they face Everton on Saturday.
