Manchester United survived a late surge as they edged past West Ham United 1-2 in the FA Cup Quarter Final replay at Upton Park’s Cup swan song. The result means that Manchester United travel to Wembley to face Everton in the semi-finals of the oldest running cup competition on the 23rd of April.
After an open first-half, 18-year old wonderkid Marcus Rashford broke the deadlock in the 54th minute when a smartly struck shot from the edge of the box found its way past Hammers’ keeper Darren Randolph and into the top corner. The lead was doubled 13 minutes later when Marouane Fellaini directed a deflected Anthony Martial strike around 2 yards from goal.
West Ham replied with a goal via centre-back James Tomkins with 11 minutes to go, but could not find that equaliser that would have taken the tie into extra-time.
Here are the 5 talking points of a riveting encounter at Upton Park:
A match worthy of a stadium farewell
Though the result was a bitter pill to swallow for Hammers fans, they will be pleased that their home ground for 112 years was given a grand-stand Cup farewell thanks to a nail-biting encounter. The game started with West Ham on the front foot with a couple of attempts at goal. As the half progressed, the away side found their groove – moving the ball around seamlessly and coming very close through Jesse Lingard.
The second half started in the same fashion as the first half ended as United kept throwing challenges at the Hammers defence. The 2 goals – a Marcus Rashford belter into the top corner and Marouane Fellaini’s tap-in were just rewards for a dominant 30 minutes.
West Ham got the incentive for a high-press after going two down and recovered one goal thanks to an unmarked James Tomkins header from a corner. A Cheikou Kouyate header in the 89th minute went in but was ruled out for offside. It was a heart-breaking, yet thrilling finish to what will be remembered as an FA Cup classic.
Marcus Rashford is indeed a special talent
What a month it has been for the 18-year old academy graduate! It is ironical, yet refreshing to see that despite going on a spending spree over the past 2 seasons, United’s revelation of the campaign has been a player who cost them exactly nothing.
His pace absolutely destroyed the West Ham defence for almost the entire game. His accurate finish past the reach of a diving Darren Randolph into the top corner was the act of a teenager full of confidence and energy. He is slowly building the stamina to last for 90 minutes, playing 88 before being replaced by a returning Wayne Rooney.
West Ham’s advancing fullbacks leave them exposed at the back
Both of West Ham’s fullbacks – Michail Antonio on the right and Aaron Cresswell on the left – possess an attacking mindset as they tend to advance up the pitch to get themselves involved in West Ham’s attack. Like in previous games, this has left them exposed at the back, forcing the likes of Mark Noble and Cheikhou Kouyate – not the quickest central midfielders – to track back to neutralise a counter charge.
United took full advantage of this as their front three of Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard continuously tested West Ham on the break. It didn’t lead to a goal, but West Ham need to balance their attacking and defensive attitudes if they want to win close games like these.
David de Gea bails his team out – again!
Where would Manchester United be without this man? Like on innumerable instances prior to this fixture, the Spanish custodian yet again saved his side the blushes as he made a series of awesome saves to ensure United’s passage into the last four.
His best performance came in the 89th minute, when he made a double save to deny Cheikhou Kouyate and Andy Carroll, before Kouyate’s header from the rebound was disallowed for offside. It looks like the 25-year old is set to win Manchester United’s player of the season award for the third season running.
Should West Ham have had a penalty?
A controversial moment came in the 57th minute, when Dimitri Payet showed his class with the ball on his feet, waltzing past Michael Carrick before being brought down under pressure from Daley Blind inside the box. Replays showed that Blind was nowhere near the ball and jumped in the way of the French midfielder to impede his path.
On most days that would have been given, but referee Roger East thought otherwise and didn’t feel there was enough in it to warrantee a penalty. Some might argue in Manchester United’s favour saying that Payet was looking for contact and went down too easily. Either way, it was a massive let-off for Manchester United.
