Manchester United are back in the race for the Champions League. Having managed to defeat Aston Villa 2 goals to 1 on the pitch at Villa Park this evening as part of the 24th day of the Premier League, the Mancuniens achieved a third consecutive success in the championship which allows them to come back to within five lengths of the Villans (46 points) in the ranking. Rasmus Hojlund (16th) and Scott McTominay (84th) were the scorers for the Red Devils while Douglas Luiz (66th) briefly gave hope to Unaï Emery’s men.
Deprived of the presence of Lisandro Martinez at kick-off (the Argentine defender injured his knee quite seriously during the last match once morest West Ham), MU did not seem more disturbed than that by the absence of the one who had established himself as one of the bosses of his defense. Led by a Raphaël Varane back in the eleven aligned by Erik Ten Hag and excellent from one end to the other of this exciting Manchester United-Aston Villa, the Red Devils quickly took the lead over their evening hosts , Marcus Hojlund (16th, 0-1) taking advantage of a good deflection of Harry Maguire’s header from a Bruno Fernandes corner to beat Emiliano Martinez at close range.
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Onana pulled out all the stops
Rightly rewarded for their good start to the match, Bruno Fernandes’ partners returned to the locker room with this meager nest egg in advance. Saved several times by the impeccable André Onana (23rd, 24th, 44th) in the first period, the Mancuniens pushed back the deadline for a while following returning from the locker room before the Villans’ revolt ended up getting the better of the visitors’ defense . Despite a still heroic André Onana in front of Clément Lenglet (66th), the opportunist Douglas Luiz (66th, 1-1) tied the two teams with a point-blank deflection, at the same time bringing life back to a Villa stadium Park who was just waiting to ignite.
Logically joined in the score by a team of Villans clearly more dashing in the second half, Manchester United nevertheless found the mental resources to snatch the decision five minutes from the end of the match. While Douglas Luiz (76th) and Moussa Diaby (78th) had just harvested two huge situations in favor of Aston Villa, Mancunian’s top scorer in the Premier League (he has now scored 7 goals this season) Scott McTominay (84th , 1-2) came to place a decisive header on a chiseled cross from Portuguese full-back Diogo Dalot.
Winner in pain, but with panache from a valiant Aston Villa team, MU signs a fifth victory in six matches in all competitions which not only puts them within shooting range of Unaï Emery’s men, but which also allows them to create a small gap (5 points) on seventh Newcastle (36 points).
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