Manchester United 2 Anderlecht 1 (United win 3-2 on agg)
In the end, it was a bittersweet night for Manchester United. They are through to the semi-finals, courtesy of another goal for Marcus Rashford’s growing portfolio, but the victory came with a heavy price bearing in mind the sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic limping away after a jarring injury, just before the tie moved into extra-time.
Ibrahimovic’s knee had bent to a point where there will inevitably be concerns about whether he is able to take any further part in the competition. United’s leading scorer will undergo a scan to assess the damage and it threatens to be a considerable loss even if Rashford’s end-of-season form indicates he is ready to fill the void.
United had led through Henrikh Mkhitaryan's early goal but it became a difficult night thereafter and, once again, they put themselves in danger through their profligacy. Between them, Rashford, Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba missed more chances than they will probably wish to remember.
Ibrahimovic, indeed, has rarely looked so maladroit, putting in one of his least distinguished performances in United’s colours before that moment, late on, when he landed awkwardly after an aerial challenge and immediately signalled he was badly hurt. He did at least manage to walk off but he was in obvious pain and the layoff could be a long one.
The other downside for United is that this was also a night when they lost another of their centre halves to injury. José Mourinho is already without Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, with neither player expected back before mid-May, and Marcos Rojo was in considerable pain when he was taken off on a stretcher midway through the first half.
Rojo had twisted his knee going for a tackle a few minutes earlier and, having received some lengthy treatment close to the touchline, he initially tried to continue before it became obvious in the next challenge that he was in no state to carry on.
This, worryingly for United, is what can often happen with players who have suffered knee ligament damage – a short, deceptive period when the initial pain wears off, an attempt to run it off and then the realisation that it was a worse injury than suspected. Rojo could conceivably have featured for the last time this season.
His departure meant Daley Blind filling in as an emergency centre half in the position where he played for long spells last season. Mourinho has made it clear he does not trust Blind in the same way Louis van Gaal did but the United manager did not have any other specialist centre backs available and perhaps it was inevitable in these circumstances, with Sergio Romero in goal and Luke Shaw getting a rare start, that there were times when the home team looked unusually vulnerable in defence.
Nine minutes after the substitution, United's opponents had the ball in a promising position on the right. Alexandru Chipciu's cross was turned away by Blind but without enough distance to avert the danger. Youri Tieleman's shot skimmed off Antonio Valencia's instep and when the ball spun over Romero to hit the crossbar the rebound dropped between Blind and two players wearing Anderlecht's purple. Lukasz Teodorczyk could not re-arrange his feet quickly enough to take advantage but the captain, Sofiane Hanni walloped in his shot to level the tie.
Anderlecht finished the first half as the more threatening side whereas early on Mourinho must have liked what he saw. Pogba’s pass in the build-up to the opening goal, 10 minutes in, was a particular joy. Pogba seemed to be losing his balance as he stretched out one of those long limbs to open up the visiting defence with a beautifully weighted ball into Rashford’s path, running in from the left. Rashford’s first attempt to slide a pass across the penalty area to Mkhitaryan came back off the nearest defender but he picked him out the second time. Mkhitaryan took aim with his right foot and fired a low drive past Martínez Rubén.
From that point Anderlecht, on the verge of winning the Belgian league, played with far more authority than in the first leg. Ibrahimovic found it difficult for long spells to have any positive impact, earning a touchline dressing-down from Mourinho just before the hour, and there were only fleeting moments during the first hour when Rashford troubled the visiting defenders in the way he had those of Chelsea in last weekend’s win.
Teodorczyk, in particular, made it a difficult night for United's back four while at the other end there were loud howls of frustration early in the second half when Shaw combined with Rashford to set up a chance Jesse Lingard could not quite reach. Shaw's run was superb but when he turned the ball across the goalmouth Lingard was unable to apply the touch that would have soothed the crowd's nerves.
Midway through the second half, United suddenly seemed to remember they were the home side. It was an onslaught for the remainder of the match and, finally, Rashford made their superiority count, eluding two defenders with a skilful turn and firing in a left-footed shot.
(Guardian service)
