Manchester United recorded a hard-fought victory over Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Tuesday evening. Cristiano Ronaldo put the Red Devils with his first goal of 2020 in the lead, after which Bruno Fernandes secured the victory deep into injury time: 2-0.
The expectation was that United would start the game against Brighton after three draws. On the other hand, the first danger in the opening phase came in the name of the visitors, after Jakub Moder was released in the opponent’s box and David de Gea thought he could surprise in the short corner. After Darren Webster’s difficult take on the ball, the home team also asserted themselves offensively for the first time. Jadon Sancho was brought into position by Ronaldo and had a serious opportunity to open the scoring, but the attacker counted outside Roberto Sanchez, who reacted vigilantly by narrowing his goal.
????????????????????????, he does it anyway!! † Cristiano Ronaldo finally scores his first goal in 2022 and puts United ahead: 1-0?#ZiggoSport #PremierLeague #MUNBHA pic.twitter.com/5gjPygtrXs
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) February 15, 2022
Joël Veltman made in the defense of the Seagulls again a good impression and on the stroke of half-time also formed the basis of another chance for Moder by serving his teammate with a tailor-made cross. Moder seemed to break the spell for Brighton with a header towards the top corner, but with an extreme reflex De Gea managed to save United from a deficit. Manager Graham Potter’s team convinced with a strong first half. It ultimately yielded nothing to Brighton, because their own glasses were thrown in no time.
Yves Bissouma suffered a sloppy loss of possession in his own half, which was immediately punished by Ronaldo. The Portuguese star attacker dribbled in and then withdrew from the edge of the box: 1-0. Barely recovered from the deficit, Lewis Dunk was the last man to sleep when Anthony Elanga snatched the ball from him. The defender had to pull the emergency brake and where referee Peter Bankes initially wanted to clear the violation with a yellow card, he came back to this after the intervention of the VAR. For example, Ronaldo was twice with his head close to his second goal of the evening and Sanchez was able to save with his legs on a goal by Fernandes.
Brighton, however, did not give in and fought back into the game in the final phase. De Gea proved to be an obstacle for Moder several times. The one time the closing post had no answer to a bet by the Polish midfielder, he was saved by the crossbar. The home team hoped to get a point out of the fire deep in injury time, but ran into Fernandes 2-0 via a counter.