A Scott McTominay header in the eighth minute was enough for Manchester United to beat Aston Villa in the third round of the FA Cup on Monday (January 10).
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Manchester United beat Aston Villa 1-0 in their third round FA Cup encounter at Old Trafford on Monday (January 10).
A Scott McTominay header in the eighth minute was enough for United to get past Villa. However, the away team will rue not taking their chances.
Into the fourth round of the #FACup! ?#MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 10, 2022
This was far from an assured performance from the home side, although they started well enough. The aim was to play at a high tempo from the off and they succeeded in pinning Villa back.
A Luke Shaw corner early in the match fell to Fred, whose flighted ball went straight to McTominay. The Scotsman made no mistake with the header and United were ahead.
Yet if this was supposed to be an invitation to push forward further, it was ignored. What’s more, Villa found themselves back in the game quite early.
United’s failings were all too familiar at that point: a porous midfield, a defence vulnerable to switching off and a lack of overall coordination.
Again, these aren’t new issues but United would paper over these with individual displays from their players. Yet it is worth noting that Cristiano Ronaldo did not start the game, neither did Jadon Sancho. Both were ruled out due to “muscular issues”.
Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford carried on their own recent patchy run of form. That did not help matters either, and Villa made themselves a number of chances.
Yet much to the frustration of manager Steven Gerrard – and Villa fans everywhere – none of them were taken.
Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Buendia missed glit-edge chances in the first half, but they weren’t the only ones.
Jacob Ramsey did well to break through United’s lines but overhit his pass. John McGinn managed a shot on goal that called David de Gea into action.
Amazingly, it got worse for Villa. Watkins was again the culprit, smashing a shot against the crossbar. Later Ramsey managed to get in a decent shooting position but saw his effort blocked by McTominay.
It’s worth noting that this was all in the first half; Villa could have easily been three goals ahead going into the break with better finishing.
In the second half, Danny Ings headed home from a McGinn corner that was ruled out for Ramsey blocking Edinson Cavani while in an offside position.
The VAR check took a while but the goal was not given. This raised the temperature of the game considerably and saw Villa create a few more chances.
That they took none of them means United made it through to the next round.
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