Manchester United romped to an impressive 5-1 Premier League victory over Cardiff City on Saturday in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first match in charge.
Three goals in the first half from Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera and Anthony Martial and a brace from Jesse Lingard earned all three points at Cardiff City Stadium, with Victor Camarasa’ penalty proving to be a little consolation.
The matter of fact that the Red Devils scored 5 goals in the league for the first time since Alex Ferguson’s final game should be music to all the fans. And the Manchester United era under Solskjaer got off to a dream start when Rashford blasted home a free-kick from 30 yards out that left goalkeeper Neil Etheridge rooted to the spot.
Manchester United made it 2-0 inside 30 minutes through Herrera, who fired a shot from distance that took a vicious deflection past Neil Etheridge into the Cardiff City goal. Cardiff, however, halved the deficit when Camarasa fired high into the net from the spot after Rashford was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box.
But the visitors soon restored their two-goal lead through Martial with a fantastic team goal that involved Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard. Solskjaer’s team dominated the proceedings with some exquisite one-touch passing and movement from the players. It looked like it was only a matter of time before Manchester United would add to their lead.
Paul Pogba was the conductor of United’s free-flowing football and had a couple of good chances but it was Lingard who dispatched a cool penalty after being bundled to the ground by Sol Bamba.
Manchester United came close to scoring their fifth with Rashford rolling his diagonal shot past the right-hand post of Etheridge’s goal. Cardiff got forward more as the game drew to a close but lacked quality in the final third and never really tested David De Gea.
And in the stoppage time, Lingard iced the cake by rounding the Cardiff goalkeeper and slotting home from Pogba’s inch-perfect through ball.
Ecstatic with the 5-1 thumping of Cardiff, here’s how some United fans reacted on Twitter:
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