RUUD AWAKENING
Man Utd 2 Leicester 1: Maguire rescues woeful United with controversial Fergie-time winner in front of legend Sir Alex
There was a controversial end to the game
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HARRY MAGUIRE came up trumps to dump his old pals and get Ruben Amorim off the hook.
Maguire pounced with the stoppage time header that saw United claw their way back from a nightmare performance and keep their hands on the FA Cup.
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The United centre back, a Leicester hero for two years, buried Bruno Fernandes’ deep free kick at the far post into the opposite corner.
Yet the Foxes were fuming that the free kick was the harshest of hand ball calls against James Justin… and then replays suggested Maguire may even have been offside.
With no VAR to bail them out of the mire, though, Leicester were simply out of the FA Cup and Amorim out of jail.
Yet don’t let that place in the fifth round mask the grim reality of the night…United got lucky.
They were, for all the first half and sizeable chunks of the second, abysmal. Clueless, listless and frankly bloody hopeless.
Ruben Amorim may have claimed he let Marcus Rashford leave because the striker couldn’t get to grips with is methods.
Well last night he could have got rid of at least half a dozen more, if their performance against the Foxes was anything to go by.
Not until Alejandro Garnacho appeared from the bench for the second half was their even a hint of a spark about the men in red.
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When the first chance was an edge-of-the-box snapshot from Jordan Ayew to sting Andre Onana’s palms, most of Old Trafford saw it as an alarm call. It was merely an alarm.
United were so dismal, that was as close as we got to a goal from either side for the rest of the half, It was a shocker.
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Quite fitting, then, that for a long while the most pulse-raising moment was a cock-up, Mads Hermansen so nearly spilling an inswinging Amad corner over his own line.
To think that United had put eight goals past Leicester in their two previous meetings this season. The more mischievous might also claim they had a better manager then, too.
In fact the really roguish would probably point out that a Foxes victory would have meant Van Nistelrooy had as many Old Trafford wins to his name as Amorim this season.
And three minutes before the break that prospect got a lot closer when Leicester snatched a lead which only went down as a shock because neither side had come near to it before.
It came – surprise, surprise – after United, as so often this season, had got themselves in a tizzy deep in their own half and coughed up possession.
Instead of taking the safe option and simply clearing his lines, Manuel Ugarte faffed around with a never-on flick and Boubakary Soumare pounced.
Keeper Onana stuck out a foot to block Wilfred Ndidi’s point blank sidefoot, yet the ball hit Bobby De Cordova-Reid in the face and flew back over the line.
A scrappy goal in the scrappiest of games…no wonder the fans let rip with a chorus of boos. It takes a lot before this bunch turn on their own, but finally they’d cracked.
Never mind letting Rashford go because he didn’t buy into the manager’s methods. You could have said the same for half a dozen of them tonight.
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United desperately needed a spark, a star, from somewhere and Amorim chucked Garnacho on the from the bench to provide it.
The response was hardly immediate, yet midway through the second half Garnacho finally brought Old Trafford to life. United too, just when it was beginning to look a lost cause.
Ugarte finally seemed to realise his team-mates were in red by finding the Argentine winger instead of a blue-shirted Fox.
Garnacho hared in and hit a shot that clipped Wout Faes and arced over keeper Hermansen towards goal.
Yet with 70-plus thousand about to celebrate, Caleb Okoli threw himself back, stuck out a leg and somehow turned the ball against the bar, down onto the line and away.
The Leicester centre back celebrated as though he’d just scored the winner at Wembley. Three minutes later he was on his knees, a United finally strung it together.
Once more it came from Garnacho with another drive down the left and low cross. And once more it involved a ricochet off Faes, this time from Rasmus Hojlund’s flick.
But this time instead of bouncing to safety it rolled oh-so invitingly to Zirkzee and the United substitute, on for Kobbie Mainoo four minutes earlier, couldn’t miss.
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Garnacho could have teed up a second as Leicester threatened to buckle, too, but chose to shoot from a ridiculously tight angle instead of drilling across the face of goal.
Extra time and quite likely penalties it was then...until Maguire proved otherwise. Thank goodness he did - 90 minutes was quite enough!
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