In the final focus of the FA Cup round 3, Manchester United played Aston Villa at Old Trafford, winning the opening game with McTomine's header to narrowly win 1-0. According to the previous draw, United will continue to play at home in the next round against Championship-winning Middlesbrough.
Lonnick made five changes to United's starting line-up, with De Gea continuing to keep the goal, Diogu Dalo, Lindlev, Varane and Luke Shaw forming the defence, McTomine and Fred playing at the back, and Mason Greenwood, Bruno Fernandez, Marcus Rashford and Cavani playing the attack.
Manchester United's number one superstar C Ronaldo was unable to play due to injuries in the past two days, and also missed Phil Jones with a calf injury and Sancho with a hamstring injury. "I wouldn't say they were injured, but there was a problem with their muscles." Longnick explains, "Before yesterday's training, I had a conversation with Cristiano [Ronaldo] and he said that there had been a little problem with his spine over the past two days and in the end we decided that because the cup could take 120 minutes, it was better not to take risks. Jones also had a minor calf injury, so it was not a risk in the cup; Jaden (Sancho) was originally in the big list, but he had problems with both leg hamstrings, so there was no need to force the competition."
Manchester United captain Harry Maguire was also sidelined due to injury, with Lonnick saying: "His ribs are still bruised and I hope he will come back in The Premier League on Saturday, but tonight's game cannot be played. We want to make amends because we owe not only the fans, but also ourselves. Against Wolves in the first half, the team didn't have a good job of possession, so today's game was important, in terms of pressing, we wanted to control the game, play more compactly and be more aggressive."
In the 8th minute of the game, Manchester United opened the record, Fred crossed with his left foot on the right, and McTomine jumped up inside the penalty area to throw his head in, giving United a 1-0 lead over Villa. Wheat has scored 2 goals in his last 3 games, equal to the previous 58 games!
Villa's counter-attack was also fierce, with Buendia breaking through the right into the box and seemingly passing, but thanks to teammate Danny Ins in front of goal, the shoveling shot failed to catch the ball. United's defence was still clearly problematic, with De Gea flying in as he pounced on McKinn's left-footed long-range shot.
Although United are ahead, their attack is not as smooth as Villa's, and there are not too many high-level pressing, mainly relying on the side attack and counter-attack to create a threat. Marcus Rashford's cross from the left was sent to goal, but Cavani failed to set the ball straight. Cavani quickly ran into position after breaking the ball in midfield and rushed into the right rib of the penalty area to receive Fernandez's clever pass, but his small angle shot was saved by goalkeeper Martinez.
Villa immediately returned the color, Lindelev stopped the ball wrong, Watkins got the ball into the box, dunked past the Swedish Iceman and fired a powerful right-footed shot, the ball hit the crossbar and popped up, Manchester United escaped the disaster. Villa kept creating opportunities, Andyns knocked back, and the youngster Ramsey's right-footed thrust hit McTomine and deflected off the left upright.
Darlow bleeds from his right ankle and falls to the ground for treatment, but can still continue to play. Fernandez and Luke Shaw's long-range shots were deflected by Villa defender and goalkeeper respectively. Before half-time, Villa's momentum weakened and United had several counter-attacks, but Rashford failed to take advantage of the opportunity and the score did not change at 1-0.
Just five minutes into the second half, Villa nearly equalised when McGinn fired a free-kick on the right with his left foot, Khonsa's header crossed the back post, United missed in front of goal, and Ans grabbed the point in front of goal and scored the ball in with his thigh. However, the VAR video replay showed Villa youngster Jacob Ramsey blocking Cavani's return defense in an offside position and the goal was ruled to be offside.
In the 60th minute, Villa's goal was invalidated by offside for the second time, Andes single-handedly faced De Gea to pick out a pass, Watkins shoveled into the net, but Ince ran in an offside position and the goal was blown off. Despite this, United were attacked by Villa at home, and after nearly half an hour after the 48th minute, they did not have a single shot, but their own goalkeeper De Gea was very busy, and once again made a wonderful save to block Cash's powerful shot from the right.
In the 74th minute, Greenwood counter-attacked a low shot that finally threatened Villa goalkeeper Martinez, but was saved by the other side. Lonnick has replaced Cavani with Van de Beek, B Fee with Erlanga, and Margart Rashford, hoping to strengthen control and maintain the victory. Before the end of regular time, Luke Shaw defended Khonsa in the penalty area with a suspected elbow strike, bleeding profusely in the opponent's face, but the referee thought there was no foul. In the end, United got their wish, maintaining a 1-0 score until the end of the game and advancing to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
It was United's 11th last 13 FA Cup wins against Villa, with seven consecutive wins against Villa in the tournament since the 1957 final defeat. In addition, United have won all 10 consecutive FA Cup home games, scoring 21 goals and conceding only two, and have gone unbeaten in 12 games since the 2014/15 quarter-finals lost 2-1 to Arsenal. Villa suffered seven consecutive defeats in the FA Cup, setting a record for the longest loss in the tournament.
Villa manager Gerrard has faced Manchester United 35 times in his player era, second only to Chelsea 40 times, and has a record of 13 wins, 2 draws and 20 losses. Gerrard last faced Manchester United in March 2015, when he came off the bench and went off the bench after 38 seconds.
However, the FA Cup Villa lost out, and Gerrard had enough reason to complain that the result did not reflect the situation on the pitch. Villa were more than one point past Manchester United in terms of game tactics, scene control or opportunity creation, but the Red Devils seized the opportunity shortly after the opening, while the visiting team failed to equalize the score because of the combination of luck in the goal, encountering the middle post, two offsides and suspected penalty misses.
It is worth mentioning that Ronaldo was injured and missed Manchester United to win, which was the first time this season. Previously, the Portuguese superstars were on rotation, and there was not even a starting game, and the Red Devils were either drawn or lost, and never won the ball. But this victory, but can not explain that without C Roman United can play the high position that Lonnick wants, on the contrary, the Red Devils in the scene, and C Ronaldo is not much different, the attack and defense are still a mess, it is not too much to describe it with misery.
It can be seen that Manchester United's slump this season, unable to implement the rushing strategy, can not simply blame C Ronaldo alone. In the game without Cristiano Ronaldo at the beginning of the season, and in this FA Cup, the team's performance was also unsatisfactory. Britain's Sky Sports commented after the match that although Manchester United had the desired goal to win and qualify, Lonnick faced more questions than answers.
You know, before this FA Cup match, Manchester United had a whole week to prepare for the game, and there was absolutely no excuse for the lack of training as an excuse for poor performance. If Lonnick can't change the team's situation next, there may be little hope in the Premier League or the Champions League. The only positive is that Manchester United reached the next round of the FA Cup, retaining their best hopes of winning a cup this season. In any case, the Dream Theatre audience was happy, singing "Liverpool's Bastard Son" to send Gerrard out.