United melenggang ke putaran berikutnya setelah mengalahkan tuan rumah Huddersfield Town berkat brace Romelu Lukaku. OLEH ADHE MAKAYASA Ikuti di twitter Jose Mourinho tak dapat menutupi rasa senangnya setelah mengantar Manchester United lolos ke babak perempat-final Piala FA. Kepastian lolos tersebut didapat setelah anak asuhnya mengalahkan Huddersfield Town dengan skor 2-0, Minggu (18/2) dini hari WIB.
Di pertandingan yang dilangsungkan di The John Smith’s Stadium semalam, United unggul cepat di menit ketiga lewat Romelu Lukaku. Juan Mata sejatinya bisa memperbesar keunggulan Setan Merah jelang turun minum, namun gol tersebut dianulir melalui sistem VAR karena pemain asal Spanyol itu dianggap offside.
United harus berterima kasih kepada Lukaku karena gol kedua yang dicetaknya di satu jam permainan sukses mengunci kemenangan, yang sekaligus meloloskan mereka babak delapan besar untuk menghadapi Brighton & Hove Albion pada pertengahan bulan depan. Terkait
Seusai laga, Mourinho dalam keterangannya kepada MUTV mengatakan: “Kami sudah tahu bahwa pertandingan ini akan sulit. Ini sulit namun kami mengawalinya dengan sangat baik. Dengan gol kedua di babak kedua, saya pikir kami menyudahi perlawanan mereka dan, sejak saat itu, kami mengendalikan permainan.”
“Saya sendiri senang untuk lolos ke perempat-final,” lanjut Mourinho. “Saya senang kami memenangkan pertandingan ini, terlebih setelah menelan kekalahan [di pekan sebelumnya dari Newcastle United].”
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5 talking points
There was no catching a cold for Manchester United in wintry Yorkshire, even after Paul Pogba was ruled out with illness.
Jose Mourinho’s side weathered a storm from Huddersfield, who carved out several chances and whipped up a fierce atmosphere at the John Smith’s Stadium, and made their class tell in an ultimately comfortable victory.
It was Romelu Lukaku who put them into the FA Cup quarter final, who showed his goal drought is well and truly over with two fine finishes early in each half to stop the Terriers snapping at United’s heels.
The Manchester team were forced back for long periods as Huddersfield clung to hope for much of the game, but it was the difference in quality between the two teams’ forward lines that decided the game.
Lukaku scored within two minutes of the start when he combined brilliantly with Juan Mata to force his way into the area, before turning onto his right foot and finishing cutely. Then a sublime pass from Alexis Sanchez sent him free after the break, and he finished with casual ease.
In between, the home side had so many chances to level, the best coming when Florent Hadergjonaj crossed brilliantly and Tom Ince did equally brilliantly to get on the end of it, but his finish was not up the approach and the ball skewed wide.
Ince also should have found Mathias Jorgensen when free, but the cross evaded everyone to deny a certain goal, and United capitalised, as Pogba wasn’t even needed to emphasise the difference in class.
They were also denied another goal on the stroke of half time when VAR came to Huddersfield’s rescue as a replay showed Mata to be a tiny fraction offside before finding the net. But it mattered not, as United went through.
Here, our reporter David Maddock offers some insight into the talking points of the game.
READ ALL 5 TALKING POINTS HERE
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Sir Alex Ferguson once said he wouldn't sell Real Madrid a virus. Perhaps Jose Mourinho will.
With stories surfacing that Paul Pogba is unhappy with the hard-knock life of Mourinho's Manchester United boot camp followed by suggestions that the European champions are circling, the £89million man could not have picked a worse moment to go on the sick.
Less than 24 hours earlier, his manager had stated his defiant intention to play Pogba at Huddersfield in the FA Cup.
The Portuguese then got himself even further on the front foot by dismissing all talk of a rift as a “big lie.”
He wouldn't have been impressed when he got an early-morning message that Pogba would spend the day tucked up in bed.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
(Image: 2018 Getty Images)
At least Mourinho got the tonic of a place in the quarter-finals, two goals by Romelu Lukaku ensuring that there would be no repeat of the drama of United's last visit to the John Smith's Stadium in October.
But claims that Pogba is struggling in his second season at Old Trafford are unlikely to go away until the Frenchman starts delivering value for money.
The irony is that an attempt by United's media team to explain his absence only gave the conspiracy theorists more ammunition.
(Image: Twitter/paulpogba)
The official line from Old Trafford was that Pogba had been taken ill overnight.
But there's the rub. An official statement. Posted on United's Twitter account more than six hours before Mourinho was due to send his team into combat.
This is Manchester United. The club that could give Kim Jong Un lessons in state secrecy.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
Fergie was hard-faced enough to ban journalists if they had the professionalism to tell tales that would alert opposition managers to sensitive team information.
Yet now – presumably with Mourinho's permission – United were telling David Wagner not to bother planning for the Premier League's most expensive player.
And it was hardly a 'get well soon” message that the Portuguese sent to his ailing No 6 before the game.
“I don't care,” said Mourinho, when asked for a deeper explanation into what the club doctor had written on Pogba's sicknote. “I focus on the game. I will think about Paul after the match.”
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
It will be interesting to see what he thinks about his social media-loving midfielder being fit enough to send his team-mates a good luck Tweet.
Huddersfield haven't lifted the Cup for 96 years – and the last time they reached the quarter-finals Bobby Charlton was still playing. Their wait goes on.
Lukaku scored last-minute goals in both of the wins over Derby and Yeovil that had delivered United into round five.
But last night he was in a hurry to book a place in the quarter-finals.
Just 157 seconds were on the clock when Lukaku swapped passes with Juan Mata, shrugged off Chris Schindler, and sent Jonas Lossel tumbling one way with a glance towards the far corner before beating the Town keeper at the opposite post.
Huddersfield's response was good. They lost out when one VAR decision went against them after Chris Smalling had handled, but they got a break just before the break when Mata walked Ashley Young's pass beyond Lossl to score.
(Image: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images)
(Image: Action Images via Reuters)
The assistant referee's flag stayed down as Schindler appealed for offside, but the decision was left to Neil Swarbrick in his London studio.
It took a full two minutes for the verdict to come back: no goal. Perhaps Mata will shave his legs next week because that's how tight it was. Graham Poll even suggested that Swarbrick had got it right more by good judgement than the power of technology.
United, however, would not be denied.
Ten minutes after the break and Lukaku was celebrating his 20th goal of a season that's had its share of peaks and troughs.
(Image: REUTERS)
Alexis Sanchez had spent most of the evening showing the kind of selfless toil that Mourinho is demanding from Pogba.
But when the Chilean new-boy led a lightning United breakaway, he also had the quality to spring Lukaku through the middle with a glorious pass.
The Belgian striker didn't make any mistake.
Back in Manchester, his big mate would have felt much better.
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