Juan Mata sent Manchester United into the FA Cup fourth round with a neat dinked finish in the 67th minute to secure a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in their replay at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
Mata was played clean through by Anthony Martial and calmly chipped goalkeeper John Ruddy for the only goal against Wolves who knocked United out of last season’s FA Cup and had a 10th-minute effort ruled out by VAR.
The first match at Molineux between the teams, both in the last 32 of the Europa League and with plenty of tired legs, had ended goalless with United failing to land a single shot on target.
United’s celebrations were muted, however, by an injury to their top scorer Marcus Rashford who came on as a second-half substitute for Daniel James and played only 16 minutes before limping off injured.
“That backfired, but you’ve got to go for them once in a while,” manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told BT Sport.
The injury left the England striker a doubt for Sunday’s Premier League clash against runaway leaders Liverpool at Anfield.
“It seems like he’s got a knock there and he couldn’t run, so let’s test him in the next couple of days. Hopefully, he’ll be OK for Sunday, I don’t know,” said Solskjaer.
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