"Hand Rashford the Ballon d'Or" - Twitter erupts as Marcus Rashford comes off the bench and wins it for Manchester United

Manchester United secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Marcus Rashford sparing the Red Devils' blushes.

Much of the pre-match talk surrounded Rashford after the English forward was dropped to the substitutes bench for 'internal disciplinary reasons'. However, Ten Hag sent Rashford on in the second half, as his side lacked a killer instinct, and the English forward was the difference maker for United.

Erik ten Hag's side were close to taking an early lead in the fifth minute, but Casemiro's deflected header sailed just over Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa's goal. Alejandro Garnacho was handed a golden opportunity to score in the 16th minute when Wolves' Semedo has the ball nicked off him by the Argentine teenager.

Garnacho was through on goal and one-on-one with Sa, but the Portuguese made himself big and denied the shot before clearing ahead of the oncoming Antony. The Brazilian was wasteful in the first half and sent a 37th-minute header straight at Sa.

Garnacho sent a delightful cross into Anthony Martial's path in added time, but the Frenchman couldn't convert, and Sa claimed Antony's tame header. The offside flag went up on the Brazilian anyway.

Wolves and United shared 12 attempts throughout an open first half, but Ten Hag's side were closest to taking the lead. The hosts went close in the 58th minute when Ruben Neves sent a brilliant free-kick on goal that was equally superbly saved by Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea.

It seemed as if United would fall to a disappointing goalless draw till Rashford conjured up a moment of magic in the 76th minute. The English striker unlocked the Wolves defence, playing a delightful one-two with Fernandes on the left flank before seeing off pressure from Jonny to fire past Sa.

He was on the scoresheet yet again in the 83rd minute, but the ball was adjudged to have come off of his hand so it was ruled out.

Wolves threatened late on, but the Red Devils hung on and moved up to fourth in the Premier League table. Rashford spared the blushes of his Manchester United teammates, particularly Antony and Martial, who performed woefully.

Manchester United winger Antony pays tribute to Brazilian icon Pele before the game against Wolves

The two teams gave a minute's applause in dedication to the late Pele, who sadly passed away on Wednesday (December 29).

The Selecao legend scored 77 goals in 92 international caps and is the only player to win the FIFA World Cup three times. Pele also scored an astounding 643 goals in 659 appearances for Santos FC, and was named as FIFA's Player of the Century in 2000.

Tributes have poured in for the legendary striker. His compatriot Antony did so by wearing an emotional message on his undershirt before United clashed with Wolves.

About the author

Matthew is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who has been covering news, rumors and match reports for close to 3 years. Learning creative writing from University of Essex, he combined his skills and passion for football take up writing for the sport professionally.

Matthew always strives to go beyond a story and offer unique and lesser-known insights, while maintaining an unbiased tone in his articles. His reporting exploits at the company have helped him gain a humungous readership of 25 million, with one of his articles raking in a whopping 724,000 reads.

A Manchester United fan since childhood, Matthew admired Sir Alex Ferguson for his loyalty and brave coaching style. His favorite footballer is Thierry Henry, believing the Frenchman to be uniquely talented and charismatic. An ardent Three Lions fan, England's penalty shootout win over Colombia in 2018 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment of all time, and he believes that Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe will have a Ballon d’Or duopoly after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

He also follows his local EFL League Two clubs AFC Wimbledon and Sutton United, and spends his free time watching and writing about professional wrestling. He also likes to work out, watch movies and go for night outs.

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