FA Cup: Chelsea edge Leeds to enter quarters; Man Utd, Liverpool also through
Conor Gallagher came off the bench to score the winner as Chelsea beat Leeds United 3-2 in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge.
Manchester United’s impressive form continued with a 4-0 demolition of Championship-side Reading in the third round of the FA Cup.
The holders sent out a strong side for the cup tie at Old Trafford, with captain Wayne Rooney starting after for the first time in 2017 after spending a short spell on the sidelines.
And Rooney opened the scoring in the 7th minute, guiding home a Juan Mata cross with his knee to equal United legend Bobby Charlton’s record of 249 goals for the Red Devils. While Rooney’s prowess may be on the wane, the fact that he got to the landmark in just 543 games as opposed to Charlton, who got to the milestone in 758 games, is indeed impressive.
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Despite giving the likes of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic a rest, United dominated the game from the off, and Anthony Martial doubled their lead with a sublime strike in the 15th minute.
Martial, who has had a sluggish start to the 2016-17 season, has been brilliant in recent games and after being involved in the opener, got himself on the scoresheet and could have had more as the match progressed, if not for Marcus Rashford’s erroneous decision making in the final third.
The young Rashford, playing as the lone striker in place of Ibrahimovic missed a host of chances in the first-half, but made amends with a brace in the second period to ensure Jaap Staam’s return to Old Trafford was an unhappy one.
The legendary defender who was part of United’s treble-winning side, now manages Reading and will have acknowledge his side were second-best for the whole 90 minutes.
Still, for all their dominance, United were lucky to score their fourth, as Royals keeper Ali Al-Habsi made a horrendous error to allow Rashford to walk into goal for his second.
United have an action-packed week ahead of them, a mid-week League Cup semifinal against Hull City to be followed by a weekend clash against arch-rivals Liverpool.
Jose Mourinho, however, won’t be worried as his side are on a tremendous run of form and will fancy their chances of winning 10 games on a trot come next Sunday.
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