Man Utd 2 LASK 1 (agg 7-1): Lingard and Martial spare sloppy Utd’s blushes to set up quarter-final tie vs FC Copenhagen
SO it’s on to Germany now where the real business will begin.
This never ending competition only gets interesting when we are down to the last eight.
Interesting was certainly not a word used last night at a match where even the fans on the murals looked bored in the first half.
United did at least win it with Anthony Martial coming on to get a late winner with United’s best move of the match.
They passed their way through the Austrian side and Martial wriggled through a gap to score with just three minutes left, his 23rd goal of the season.
LASK had at least restored a little pride and provided the stand out moment of the game.
Philip Wiesinger almost burst the net with a 25-yard screamer into the top left hand corner to give the visitors the lead in the 55th minute.
It was a lead that would last only two minutes. Juan Mata put Jesse Lingard through and his final shot deflected off the toe of the LASK goalscorer Wiesinger and in.
So that’s that over with.
Now the excitement should grow with a mini tournament that will decide whether Ole Solskjaer can land his first trophy as a Manchester United manager to go with the ten he won as a player.
United fly off to Cologne on Sunday with their quarter-final against Copenhagen the following day.
There is also the chance for an all-English match up with Wolves in the semis.
United are already back where they should be dining at the top table with Europe’s footballing elite.
That will relieve the pressure going to Germany where they will be favourites to lift the trophy on August 21.
They have waltzed to the last eight, topping their group, and hammering Club Brugge 6-1 on aggregate and now LASK 7-1 on aggregate in the knockout stages.
This tie was all comfortably sorted before football was locked down with a 5-0 win in Austria leaving last night’s game as the deadest of dead rubbers.
United did not have an effort on target in that first period but did at least step it up a bit in the second.
Solskjaer had said pre-match this was a chance for players to stake a claim.
But it is fair to say he won’t be making any drastic changes to his plans for Monday.
When the big guns are on the sidelines this is a very different United.
Lingard will, however, have his confidence boosted by a second goal in as many games as he bids to get back into Solskjaer’s plans for the future.
‘This team is going places’ said the manager in his programme notes last night.
First it’s going to Germany to land a trophy which he hopes will prove a catalyst for much more silverware returning to Old Trafford.
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