Juan Mata loves playing alongside Donny van de Beek at Manchester United because he 'understands football' in a way that he likes.
Van de Beek and Mata linked up for United's second goal of the night at Brighton as the Reds recorded their second win in five days at the Amex, moving into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals in the process.
Mata's strike was set up superbly by Van de Beek, who skilfully played the ball into the 32-year-old's path before the Spaniard cut inside onto his right foot and stroked the ball home.
"Very clever assist," Mata told Sky Sports when asked about Van de Beek's role in the goal. "He is a very clever player. I love playing with him because he finds pocket of space and he understands football in a way that I like, which is playing one-twos, passing and moving and the goal was like that.
"He's always in the right position, he flicked the ball to me and I could finish with my right foot."
On United's ambitions to win the competition, Mata said: "That is what is in our mind to try to lift trophies for our fans. We did it in 2017, so we want to do it again. We try to win every game in every competition and this one is of course different this year because we're playing at an early stage but hopefully we can go through quarter-finals, semi-finals and play at Wembley which is always nice."
