The Red Devils broke the deadlock through Anthony Elanga before Mason Greenwood doubled the lead and then Marcus Rashford completed the drubbing.
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Manchester United scored three second-half goals to beat Brentford 3-1 in the Premier League fixture at Brentford Community Stadium on Wednesday. The Red Devils broke the deadlock through Anthony Elanga before Mason Greenwood doubled the lead and then Marcus Rashford completed the drubbing. Although Brentfod pulled one back through Ivan Toney, it proved to be just a consolation goal. Meanwhile Ralf Rangnick’s side were indebted to the brilliance of David de Gea in goal as the Spanish custodian made two brilliant first-half saves to deny Mathias Jansen from close range.
A strong second-half from the visitors secures victory ?#BREMUN pic.twitter.com/eMZ5hRnb0l
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 19, 2022
The Bees started the match with great intensity and aggression and came close to scoring in the 13th minute. Christian Norgaard did well to feed the ball to an unmarked Jensen but De Gea made a superb save with his left foot to deny the Danish midfielder from close range.
The danger was not yet over as Victor Lindelof blocked Vitaly Jabnelt’s effort before Alex Tellas made a crucial block to deny Mads Sorensen from the resulting corner. And then, from yet another corner, Norgaard hooked Jensen’s pull-back over the crossbar.
At the other end, Diogo Dalot’s long-range effort went just wide of goal. Just after the half-hour mark, United were nearly caught on the counter. Janelt played a brilliant first-time long ball to Toney, who set it up for Jensen, but once again De Gea stood firm to keep out his low shot from eight yards out.
After the restart, Rangnick’s side came out all guns blazing. Cristiano Ronaldo, who was returning from an injury, headed onto the crossbar from Bruno Fernandes’ cross. United finally put their nose in front in the 55th minute. Fred was given too much space and time to deliver an overhead ball for the onrushing Elanga, who darted in front of Mads Roerslev to control and finish with his second touch.
The momentum was now with the visitors as McTominay tested Jonas Lossl with a long-range effort before Greenwood doubled the lead in the 62nd minute. Ronaldo chesteed the ball down for an onrushing Fernandes who raced forward down the left side before feeding the ball to Greenwood to slot home into an empty net.
Thirteen minutes from time, United scored their third of the night. McTominay got past a couple of challenges before playing the ball to Fernandes who laid it to Rashford to smash into the roof of the net. Meanwhile, Brentford did eventually get on the scoresheet in the 85th minute as Fred failed to clear Sorensen’s low throw, allowing Toney to finish from two yards out.
The win helped United to 35 points from 21 games, two behind fourth-placed West Ham United while Brentford remain at the 14th place with 23 points.
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