Manchester United 3-2 Newcastle United: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis| Premier League 2018-19

#2 Goals Galore!

Ohhh

Juan

Mata!

Manchester United was very threatening on the attacking front in the second half. With just one centre-back, their motive was to get bodies inside the box and make Newcastle succumb to the intense waves of pressure.

As mentioned in the previous slider, Martial roamed around the attacking line to spot pockets of space and run at them.

On one such occasion, he directly dribbled into the box from the right side and was fouled by Mohamed Diame outside the penalty box.

It was a good position to take the free-kick from and Juan Mata along with Sanchez stood over the ball. By the looks of it, there was an apparent feeling that this could be the decisive moment in the game.

Sanchez ran over the ball as Juan Mata struck a beauty of a kick at the bottom right corner. Mata’s free kicks from the right end are usually sumptuous and this one was no less.

The Spaniard’s timing on the ball and the perfection with which he placed it at the exactly required position provided no chance to Martin Dubravka who was having a pretty good game by then.

The intensity and pressure kept growing and Anthony Martial collected the ball and passed it to Paul Pogba was ran inside the box.

More importantly, Pogba’s flick to Martial was perfectly timed and the younger Frenchman calmly slotted the ball into the bottom right corner.

Within five minutes, United had drawn level against the Magpies but the best was yet to come