Champions League: Manchester United v RB Leipzig match report

Champions League: Manchester United v RB Leipzig match report

Manchester United's English striker Marcus Rashford (C) watches the ball in to the net as he scores his team's fifth goal, his third making a hat trick, during the UEFA Champions league group H football match between Manchester United and RB Leipzig at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, north west England, on October 28, 2020. (Photo by Anthony Devlin / AFP) (Photo by ANTHONY DEVLIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Edinson Cavani is every Manchester United fan as Rashford scored a hat-trick on Wednesday

Manchester United empathetically defeated RB Leipzig at the Theatre of Dreams as they top their group now. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got everything absolutely right on this night as each and every player played brilliantly. Mason Greenwood got his first Champions League goal from a beautiful pass by Paul Pogba, who looked to be back to his usual best. A hat-trick from Marcus Rashford and a penalty from Anthony Martial completed RB Leipzig’s misery.

Match report:

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer started with a midfield diamond with Donny Van de Beek at the top of it. Fred and Pogba took right and left respectively while Nemanja Matic was the bottom point. Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial started as forwards. The first half was a relatively quiet affair and stayed the same as Pogba released Greenwood. The latter went on to score his first UCL goal and that was all for the first half.

Manchester United flew out with all guns blazing in the second half as they started to dominate Leipzig more often. With an hour gone, Solskjaer sent in Marcus Rashford for Greenwood. All hell broke loose as the young England forward took the match by its head.

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He scored his first goal in the 74th minute via a Bruno Fernandes assist and buried another goal within the next four minutes. He had a chance to add a third, but there was a crucial block. Then he allowed Martial to take the penalty when he was fouled instead of completing his hat-trick. This was Martial’s first goal of the season. Martial repaid the favour by dribbling past a few defenders and passing the ball to Rashford. The latter took a touch to compose himself and scored his third goal to complete his hat-trick.

Superb performances from Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka saw them nullify Leipzig’s attack. “Fred covered every blade of grass” said Ole and Pogba was absolutely influential on the left of a midfield diamond. Manchester United got everything right today and Leipzig capitulated.

Rashford is the first Manchester United player since Ole in 1999 to score a hat-trick after coming on as a substitute. His hat-trick meant that United top the group heading into a double header with Istanbul Basaksehir. RB Leipzig play PSG twice in the next few weeks and will hope to turn around their fortunes.

Also read: Istanbul Basaksehir v PSG match report