Manchester United dropped points on Wednesday evening as they drew 1-1 against Newcastle United.
Newcastle had their first serious chance, which they took advantage of when Varane was caught in possession and Saint-Maximin scored with a shot from the edge of the penalty box.
United was feeble defensively and showed little spark going forward, with no serious shots on target in the first half-hour, despite having a nice run of possession.
Newcastle scored once more, with Callum Wilson putting one past David de Gea from within the box, but the Reds were saved by the offside flag.
Rangnick had had enough after United fell behind 1-0 at halftime and chose to put on Sancho in place of Fred, with Greenwood departing to make way for Edison Cavani.
It didn’t matter at first, as Newcastle started the second half on the front foot, with Saint-Maximin having a chance from approximately six yards out that de Gea spectacularly stopped. United’s first chance of the half came a few minutes later when Marcus Rashford curled a shot from outside the area towards the goal, but Dubravka pushed it over.
United was undoubtedly making more opportunities in the second half than they were in the first, as the two substitutes combined to produce a golden chance to level the game, but Cavani just missed it.
Newcastle called for Ronaldo to be red-carded after his leg collided with Ryan Fraser around ten minutes into the game, but the aggressive challenge only earned him a yellow card. Rashford was doing everything he could to inspire the Red Devils, breaking whenever the opportunity presented, but his teammates weren’t on board.
The Reds did, however, score a goal, and it was scored by Cavani, who came on as a substitute. He took a shot that was strongly stopped by Newcastle’s defense, but it landed right at the Uruguayan’s feet again, and he scored with his second try.
It wasn’t his last chance, either, as he hit the post from close range moments later following a lovely ball in from Rashford. De Gea kept United in the game with a fantastic stop in the 88th minute to deny Almiron after Murphy rattled the woodwork.
United came near when Dubravka came to the edge of his area to collect the ball but dropped it. Sancho dinked the ball to Cavani, who tried to chip it over the keeper, but they had allowed Newcastle time to get men back on the line, and they easily cleared it.
For the Reds, it was a frustrating day as they only managed to salvage a point. After sixteen days off the pitch, United is still in seventh place.
