The Swede stepped up when his side needed him to net twice in the 3-2 EFL Cup win over Southampton
It was a cup final with absolutely everything. There was controversy,
drama, a stirring comeback, a fabulous capacity crowd, and a succession
of errors helping to make for wide open, heart-stopping football. But
every big match needs a hero and, when the time came, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
stepped up once again for Manchester United. And boy, did they need
him.
WATCH: Man Utd target Dembele’s double
Southampton will curse their rotten luck having been the better side
on the day and seeing a stick-on opening goal cancelled out by poor
officiating but it was ultimately their inability to deal with
Ibrahimovic which settled the EFL Cup final in United’s favour.
United looked vulnerable from the start, with crosses from both wings
flashing freely across the face of goal early on. Down the left flank
in particular the Red Devils looked weak, with Marcos Rojo isolated and
attacked time and again.
There was a let-off from one such situation when Manolo Gabbiadini’s
strike was ruled out by an erroneous offside call. But Saints just
didn’t respond well enough to the setback and, when Oriol Romeu made a
dangerous challenge 25 yards from goal, Zlatan punished him wonderfully
by curling the resulting free-kick over the wall.
Jesse Lingard’s third goal in three club games at Wembley should have
been enough to secure the trophy before half-time, but Southampton made
a point of going back at United’s glaring weaknesses. Another low cross
was turned home by Gabbiadini as the Reds stood and watched on the cusp
of the interval, then Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling were caught on the
back foot as Gabbiadini reacted brilliantly to Steven Davis’ header and
the scores were level.
Man Utd let off with disallowed goal
It was the least the Saints had deserved as they continued to make
United look atrocious at the back and, during a period which saw Romeu
hit the post with a free header, the odds had to favour Claude Puel’s
side. United, again, were riding their luck.
But that just set the stage for Zlatan. With little more than three
minutes to go, he ghosted in off the back of Ryan Bertrand to head home
Ander Herrera’s cross from the edge of the six-yard box. Just as
happened when United came here in August for the Community Shield,
Ibrahimovic had won it with a header from a right-wing cross
No comments:
Post a Comment