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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Samuel Luckhurst

Why Anthony Martial keeps winning penalties for Manchester United

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says Anthony Martial is becoming 'impossible to stop' amid his propensity for winning penalties.

Martial has earned Manchester United's last three spotkicks after he was hauled to the ground by Andreas Bjelland early on in extra-time of their Europa League quarter-final win over Copenhagen.

United have won 21 penalties this season, scoring 17, which is more than any other side in the top five European leagues and Bruno Fernandes has scored all seven he has taken.

"He was sharp, Anthony's developed throughout the season and today he was involved in the pen, I think," Solskjaer said. "He’s impossible to stop at times when he gets the ball to his feel and drives at people. He can go either way. The only thing now is to put the ball in the net again but delighted with performance.

"We do play some attacking football, we do get the ball into the box quite often, and we play the ball into their feet, we're not a team that really swing crosses in," Solskjaer added to beIN Sports. "We've got technical players: Mason, Juan, Anthony, Bruno, Marcus. They're quick and I'm happy I'm not a defender against them. I'd give penalties against them myself."

Solskjaer will not be able to travel to Duisberg to watch the other quarter-final between Wolves and Sevilla, with United due to face either side in their semi-final on Sunday.

Despite the six-day gap between ties, United have to stay in Cologne for as long as they are in the Europa League and Solskjaer again expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangement set by Uefa.

"We will have to watch (Sevilla-Wolves) on telly and facilities are not the same as we're used to, but that is no excuse. Every team has the same conditions, we're used to having the best facilities around the world for recovery and preparation, we just have to make the most out of a difficult situation in conditions that are hot and humid.

"What time do we train, tonight we play late, it's a strange one tomorrow morning for some of them and they probably won’t sleep for a few hours, but we've got six days to prepare for a game. There is not many times we have that."

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