Barney Ronay on Mason Greenwood
Match report: Manchester United 1-2 Leicester City
Richard Jolly was at Old Trafford to see Leicester boost their chances of qualification for next season’s Champions League with a victory that also guaranteed Manchester City’s coronation as Premier League champions. Here’s how he saw the action unfold ...
Ole on Manchester City’s title win: “If you want to take up the challenge with them we need to strengthen our squad,” he says. “Congratulations to them. They have had a fantastic season.
“I am very pleased with my boys that have made it to the last 10 days with a Manchester City side ahead of us that are lauded as the best in Europe. We want to take the next step and it might be that we need a couple more to strengthen the squad.”
Ole Gunnar Solskjær speaks: “We started off slow as you might expect because they have not had any time to prepare for the game but after they scored we had nothing to lose,” he tells BT Sport.
“We played some very good stuff and I was pleased with it. You see the leadership with Nemanja [Matic]. Mason [Greenwood] looked like a seasoned professional and he is only 19. We have not had too much time to prepare and we went into half-time pleased. In the second half we didn’t get out of the traps and they got a goal from a corner that should have been a throw.
“It can’t be like this again. We can’t play Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday to Thursday, it is impossible. That’s the reason we made the changes. It’s unheard of. It is impossible for the players to perform at this level going from Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday.”
Brendan Rodgers speaks: “It’s a huge step for us,” the Leicester manager tells BT Sport. “It was always going to be difficult after our last performance but I’m so proud of thre team. I thought we started the game well, Luke scores an amazing goal ... with a 19-year-old and Wesley at 20 in the backline ... they’re inexperienced but they’ve got no fear.
“Once we scored we went slow and sloppy in our passing, we gave the ball away to easily and that encouraged them. We defended well but I thought in the second half we were much better. We restricted them to very little while putting pressure on in their half of the pitch. I reinforced at half-time that we needed to keep the speed in their game.”
On the FA Cup final this weekend: “The players have been brilliant. They’ve definitely over-achieved. We still have work to do [in the league] but we can get ready and enjoy this Cup final at the weeklend.”
How Pep Guardiola turned Manchester City back into champions. By @JamieJackson___ and @ncwvideo #mcfc pic.twitter.com/WlPYFxMeOF
— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) May 11, 2021
More from Luke Thomas: “To come out with a win gives us a great chance going into next week,” he says. “There’s always pressure but games like this when people don’t believe you can get a result. We have proved we are such a good team by getting a result.”
Nemanja Matic speaks: “ “We had a good team today of course some young players got a chance with some experienced players,” he says. “We had a good balance. A set-piece decided the game.
“In some parts of the game we played some amazing football but we didn’t create enough to score a second goal. We had two days [to prepare]. We had some meetings, of course we are not happy with the result, but we played some good football. The youngsters did well and showed great character against a very good side.
“We have to deal with this situation. In two days we have another big game.”
On City winning the title: “They are champions but we have to be focused on ourselves in the last three games and in the Europa League to do our best.”
Luke Thomas speaks: “Playing at Old Trafford is a dream as it is but to score here is unbelievable,” he tells BT Sport. “To be honest, with my emotions, I didn’t really know what to do. I went for a knee-slide in the corner and I was over the moon.”
Meanwhile at the Etihad Stadium: Some men in high-viz jackets have just unfurled a giant “Manchester City - Champions!” banner over the front entrance.
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A quick recap: Luke Thomas put Leicester City ahead after 10 minutes with his maiden Premier League goal ... and it was a beauty. The youngster was, however, partly culpable for United’s equaliser not long afterwards, allowing Mason Greenwood to dart past him en route to scoring into the bottom corner with a shot out of nothing.
In the second half, Leicester were laying siege to United’s penalty area, if not their goal, when both managers brought on some of their big guns from the bench. Marcus Rashford’s first act was to lose his man at a corner, allowing Caglar Soyuncu to rise unmarked and power home the winner and secure three precious points for his side.
Full-time: Manchester United 1-2 Leicester City
Peep! peep! Peeeeeeep! It’s a massive win for Leicester City in their bid to qualify for next season’s Champions League and their triumph at Old Trafford means Manchester City are Premier League champions.
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90+3 min: Leicester win a throw-in halfway inside the United half, which they’re in no hurry to take. The ball is eventually chucked in the general direction of the corner flag.
90+1 min: Bruno Fernandes overhits a dinked ball over the top as he tries to pick out a Cavani run to the edge of the six yard box. Schmeichel gathers.
89 min: United continue to press forward. Brandon Williams sends the ball towards Rashford from the right, but under pressure from Fofana, he puts it wide with his head. We’ll have three minutes or thereabouts of added time.
87 min: Another corner for United. Marc Albrighton heads clear at the near post.
86 min: Manchester United corner. Alex Telles sends the ball into the Leicester penalty area, where Wilfred Ndidi leaps to head clear.
84 min: Manchester United go close, with Mata pulling a low ball across the face of goal for Cavani. It’s a fraction behind the substitute and Tielemans hacks it clear, but only as far as Fernandez. His wild slash is skewed wide, although I think with greater presence of mind Brandon Williams could conceivably have stuck out a leg and steered it goalwards.
82 min: Leicester are playing a 5-4-1 now, trying to hold on to their lead. As things stand, Manchester City will win the title in 10 minutes or so, while Brendan Rodgers side will pull eight points clear of West Ham in the race for fourth place, having played one game more.
80 min: Leicester substitution: Hamza Choudhury on for Jamie Vardy.
79 min: On the edge of the United penalty area, Maddison shifts the ball on to his right foot and curls a shot wide of the right upright. Manchester United substitution: Bruno Fernandes on for Amad Diallo.
77 min: Rashford tries to play Cavani in behind with a ball over the top but Ndidi blocks his pass.
75 min: Telles overhits a cross from the left, his effort to pick out Cavani’s run sailing high over the Uruguayan’s head.
73 min: Iheanacho picks out Vardy at the far post with a wonderful cross. He floats a header towards the far post. It’s drifting narrowly wide but Tielemans is unable to prod it home. He clatters into the upright at speed but is unhurt.
71 min: Tielemans makes room for a shot from the edge of the United penalty area but Axel Tuanzebe stretches to get in the way of it.
67 min: That’s the first decent corner Leicester City have taken this evening and it pays dividends. Most have gone towards the near post and been cleared, but this one went long from the boot of Albrighton and was thumped home by Soyuncu.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-2 Leicester City (Soyuncu 66)
Leicester lead. At a corner, Soyuncu gives Marcus Rashford the slip at the far post and powers home a header. Boom!
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65 min: Leicester continue to lay siege to the Manchester United penalty area without creating any chances of note. Leicester substitution: James Maddison on for Ayoze Perez. Manchester United double-substitution: Marcus Rashford and Edinson Cavani on for Mason Greenwood and Anthony Elanga.
63 min: Vardy overhits a cross into the Manchester United penalty area, where Perez and Iheanacho were waiting.
62 min: United are struggling to get the ball out of their own half and one suspects changes are imminent. They’re in danger of being over-run.
60 min: Leicester are attacking in waves, but United’s defence is standing firm for the time being. They’re blocking shot after shot from distance.
59 min: David De Gea saves well at his near post, standing tall after Tielemans had put Iheanacho in behind with a wonderfully weighted pass.
58 min: On the touchline, Paul Pogba, Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani are warming up for United. James Maddison is limbering up for Leicester.
57 min: Soyuncu picks out Albrighton with a fine pass from deep towardss the corner flag. He tries to tee up Ndidi, but the midfielder is unable to get a shot away.
54 min: Telles curls an inviting free-kick to the edge of the six-yard box, near post and Greenwood meets it with a glancing header. His effort is put out for a corner off Castagne. He should have scored there. Nothing comes from the corner.
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53 min: United pass the ball around at the back, unable to get it forward. Telles lumps it long down the left flank trying to pick out Greenwood and Fofana is penalised for bundling the youngster over.
51 min: Now it’s Axel Tuanzebe’s turn to give the ball away with a poor pass.
50 min: Wesley Fofana does well to intercept a through ball into the Leicester penalty area from Mason Greenwood to Anthony Elanga.
49 min: On BT Sport, Chris Sutton is on co-comms mulling over the possibility of Manchester City doing a “Devon Loch” on the run-in of the title race. No chance, Chris.
47 min: Donny van de Beek gives the ball away to Tielemans with a misplaced pass, one of an extraordinary number from various players throughout the game.
Second half: Manchester United 1-1 Leicester City
46 min: Play resumes with no changes in personnel on either side ... yet. Leicester win a corner after Iheanacho has a shot blocked. Not for the first, second or third time, Alex Telles clears at the near post. Marc Albrighton’s deliveries from the corner flag are letting him down.
Some housekeeping: “Absolutely dove is the past tense of dive,” writes Pól in Galway, among others. “In America it rhymes with rove, but in the North of Ireland it’s pronounced the same way as the bird. Dived, like thrived (instead of throve) is modern linguistic simplification.”
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Half-time: Manchester United 1-1 Leicester City
Peep! An entertaining opening 45 minutes draws to a close with the rain teeming down at Old Trafford and the sides level. Luke Thomas opened the scoring for Leicester with a fine volley at the far post, only for Mason Greenwood to take advantage of some sluggish Leicester defending to restore parity with a chance created out of very little. It’s all square at the break and it will be intriguing to see which manager blinks first and brings some of their big guns off the bench.
45+1 min: Leicester City free-kick about 25 yards from the United goal, a little right of centre. Youri Tielemans shoots straight into the wall. Where’s James Maddison when you need him? On the bench.
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43 min: Ndidi tries to muscle his way pas Tuanzebe in the Manchester United penalty area but knocks over the United defender and concedes a free-kick. Moments previously, Iheanacho had tried to thread the ball into the path of Vardy but David De Gea was quickest to it and cleared.
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41 min: Ndidi, then Castagne and then Tielemans all give the ball away in quick succession. It’s an emerging pattern of the game, with both teams squandering possession cheaply in key areas.
39 min: Marc Albrighton drills a low cross into the Manchester United penalty area and the ball is cleared by Donny van de Beek.
38 min: Soyuncu plays a long diagonal towards the corner flag for Tielemans to chase. Telles intercepts and heads clear. The Brazilian is having a busy evening but playing well in Manchester United’s makeshift back four.
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34 min: It’s also worth noting that Schmeichel could probably have done more to keep Greenwood’s shot out. “Am I being too harsh or was that very poor/strange goalkeeping from Schmeichel?” asks reader Chris. “The shot wasn’t hit particularly hard and all he could do was stick a leg out. Seemed a straightforward save had he dove for it.” A fair point well made, although I’m not sure about the use of “dove” as a verb.
30 min: Having just seen a replay of Greenwood’s equaliser, I can confirm it was a beautifully deft first touch which enabled the teenager to take the ball past three Leicester defenders and into space before scoring.
One suspects Brendan Rodgers’ biggest finger of blame will be pointing in the direction of Caglar Soyuncu, who was caught napping against Newcastle at the weekend and could have done better on this occasion too. He seemed very flat-footed and slow to react. See also: Luke Thomas, who may have been preoccupied with replaying his first Premier League goal in his mind.
27 min: David De Gea is forced to scramble into action to tip a Tielemans cross over the bar for a Leicester corner. Telles clears Albrighton’s inswinger.
25 min: Having been in the ascendency, Leicester looked decidedly rattled in the minutes after United’s equaliser but seem to have settled again. It’s a decent game and hard to call a winner.
22 min: Jamie Vardy gets in behind Eric Bailly down the inside left channel and tries to pick out Iheanacho. Axel Tuanzebe makes an important interception.
22 min: Now Wesley Fofana is penalised for a nip on the heels of Greenwood.
21 min: Wilfried Ndidi is penalised for catching Juan Mata with his follow-through as he relieved him of the ball. He protests his innocence but to no avail.
20 min: No, really. A foul throw.
20 min: Brandon Williams has just been penalised for a foul throw.
18 min: I’m not quite sure how Greenwood managed to find the space to get that shot off. He received the pass from Amad and Leicester looked to have plenty of bodies between him and their goal, but a split-second and a shimmy or two later he was in several yards of space and firing into the far corner.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-1 Leicester City (Greenwood 15)
Greenwood equalises! Having received a low cross from Amad Diallo on the edge of the Leicester penalty area, Greenwood advances past Soyuncu, takes it wide into space past Luke Thomas and fires a low diagonal effort past the outstretched arm of Schmeichel and into the bottom corner.
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12 min: It’s just started bucketing down with rain as Leicester set about building on their early lead. That was a splendid goal, with Leicester City attacking down the right flank. The cross from Youri Tielemans was inch-perfect and Thomas leapt on the angle of the six-yard box to guide a volley into the far top corner. Jamnie Vardy was in front of him and ready to leap for the ball, but he heard a shot from Thomas and left it.
GOAL! Manchester United 0-1 Leicester City (Thomas 10)
Leicester lead! From the edge of the six-yard box, Luke Thomas spanks home a volley at the far post after getting on the end of a cross from the left. That is a terrific finish.
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10 min: No chances of note so far but Leicester are looking slightly more dangerous.
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8 min: Marc Albrighton curls a cross into the edge of the six-yard box, where Vardy gets across Eric Bailly and tries to flick it goalwards with his heel. It’s slightly out of reach and he doesn’t get enough on it but that was an excellent sprint to the near post.
7 min: Alex Telles jogs up the touchline and comes back on after receiving medical attention.
5 min: Nemanja Matic concedes the first corner after Jamie Vardy had robbed Axel Tuanzebe of the ball on the edge of the final third and tried to pick out Iheanacho in the Manchester United penalty area. Alex Telles heads the inswinger clear at the near post and hurts himself in the process, shipping a bang on the head.
3 min: Leicester have lined up with five at ther back, with Marc Albrighton and Luke Thomas playing as wing-backs. Ayoze Perez is in the hole behind Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho.
2 min: Amad Diallo gets an early touch on his Premier League debut, also putting the ball out for a throw-in courtesy of a misplaced pass under pressure.
1 min: Alex Telles slides in to put the ball out for a throw-in deep in the United half.
Manchester United v Leicester City is go ...
1 min: Kasper Schmeichel and Nemanja Matic are skippering the sides tonight, while Harry Maguire is in attendance, albeit up in the stand on crutches. Leicester get the ball rolling.
Not long now: The teams are out, with Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Brendan Rodgers deep in conversation as they make their way up the touchline to their respective dug-outs. The teams line up either side of Craig Pawson and his team of match officials. Kick-off is just a couple of minutes away.
Outside the ground: The Guardian’s Alex Mistlin is one of several bored journalists hanging around outside Old Trafford, secretly hoping for a protest to report on. Here’s his dispatch from the barricades. “Not a lot going on really but good to come as a bit of a dry run for Thursday,” he says. “I imagine the police force and security staff are seeing it in a similar fashion.”
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Brendan Rodgers speaks: “It was a disappointing performance, never mind the result,” he tells BT Sport, when asked about his side’s defeat at the hands of Newcastle. “When you’re playing against the big teams you’ve got to have good energy and a good attitude in the game. That’ll be important for us.”
On his decision to leave Maddison and Pereira on the bench: “They’re both outstanding players but in a game like tonight’s you need players at their fittest, at their highest level. You’ve got to be able to press and run, but if we need those players they’ll be ready to come into the game.”
On Manchester United’s side: “My feeling is with the biggest clubs, it doesn’t matter what team you put out, there’s always a pressure to win. If you’re representing the badge of the biggest clubs, every game is important.
It’s been unfortunate, the scheduling of their games. It’s impossible in the modern game for [the same group of players] to play Sunday, then tonight and then again on Thursday. Especially against Liverpool, which is a huge game.
“I think Ollie has earned the right to pick whatever team he wants to pick. They’ve qualified for the Champions League, they’re in the final of the Europa League and this will be an opportunity for him to see how some of his younger players operate under pressure.
Ole Gunnar Solksjær speaks: Interviewed by BT Sport, the Manchester United manager says that, with another game to come on Thursday, he had “no option” but to pick the second string squad he is putting out today.
“Harry Maguire would have played today if he was fit,” he says of Manchester United’s captain, who is sidelined with an ankle injury. “The good news is nothing is broken; there’s no fracture. There’s ligament damage but we hope to see him again before the [Europa League] final.”
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Those teams: Nineteen year old Swedish winger Anthony Elanga makes his senior debut for Manchester United this evening, while his fellow fresh-faced whelp Amad Diallo makes his Premier League bow as Ole rings the changes.
Comparatively grizzled veterans David de Gea, Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic also come into a side featuring a back four of Brandon Williams, Eric Bailly, Axel Tuanzebe and Alex Telles. With Mason Greenwood the only survivor from Sunday’s win over Aston Villa, even Donny van de Beek gets a rare start.
Brendan Rodgers, by contrast, has made just two changes to the side battered by Newcastle on Friday night. Ayoze Perez and Luke Thomas come in, with James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira dropping to the bench, as expected.
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Manchester United v Leicester City line-ups
Manchester United: De Gea, Williams, Bailly, Tuanzebe, Telles, Matic, Mata, Van de Beek, Diallo, Elanga, Greenwood.
Subs: Henderson, Lindelof, Pogba, Cavani, Rashford, Fernandes, Shaw, Wan-Bissaka, McTominay.
Leicester City: Schmeichel, Castagne, Fofana, Soyuncu, Albrighton, Ndidi, Tielemans, Thomas, Perez, Iheanacho, Vardy.
Subs: Ward, Maddison, Amartey, Choudhury, Pereira, Mendy, Praet, Fuchs, Maswanhise.
Tonight’s match officials
- Referee: Craig Pawson
- Assistants: Ian Hussin, Richard West
- Fourth official: Mike Dean
- VAR: Jonathan Moss
- Assistant VAR: Marc Perry
Early team news
An ever-present for United in the Premier League this season, Harry Maguire looks nailed on to miss tonight’s game after limping off against Aston Villa with an ankle injury, while Ole Gunnar Solskjær is likely to rotate his squad due to the quick turnaround of fixtures. Eric Bailly is liekly to come in for Maguire, who joins Dan James and long-term absentees Anthony Martial and Phil Jones in the treatment room.
With an FA Cup final to plan for this weekend, this fixture provides aggravation Brendan Rodgers could also do without and he will need to find a balance between cosseting his most important players and fielding a side strong enough to beat whatever side United put out.
Jonny Evans, James Justin, Harvey Barnes and Wes Morgan are all sidelined, while James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira may start on the bench, as they continue to find their feet after recent returns from injury.
Premier League: Manchester United v Leicester City
Greetings one and all. Old Trafford is the venue for this evening’s match between Manchester United and Leicester City, which kicks off a mere 50 hours since the home side wrapped up their Sunday afternoon victory against Aston Villa.
It’s United’s first home match since protesting fans caused the postponement of their game against Liverpool and extra security measures have been put in place around Old Trafford in a bid to prevent a similar scenario doesn’t unfold today.
There’s plenty to play for. Without a victory in two games and with West Ham and Liverpool breathing down their necks in the race to qualify for the Champions League, Leicester City need a win tonight.
While guaranteed their place innext season’s Champions League and still technically in the running for the title, defeat for Manchester United will hand the title to Manchester City, while a draw would only delay the coronation of Pep Guardiola’s sider through arithmetic. Kick-off is at 6pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
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