Mata: We Can Build On This

Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata admits victory over Premier League champions Leicester City was "very important" as the Reds closed the gap on our rivals.

The convincing 3-0 away win takes United to within a point of Liverpool and two points off the top four.

Mata scored the third goal at the King Power stadium early in the second half after Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic had netted before the interval. And Mata was delighted with the Reds' form in front of goal.

“Today we took our chance and that was very important for us,” Mata said.

“It is what we have to do. In the last game we had a chance to close the gap but we didn’t as much as we would have liked. Today we did it.”

Jose Mourinho’s side stretched the unbeaten Premier League run to 15 games and Mata praised fellow goalscorer Mkhitaryan for his crucial opening strike.

“He’s a quality player, a great player and it’s easy to understand the way he plays because it is more or less the way I like to play," added the Spaniard.

“We understand very good but this is not just about us, it’s about the whole team and I’m happy because our performance was quite good.

“It was obviously very important for Micki and me to score because Zlatan is scoring a lot of goals but we need goals from us as well.

“We are scoring, we are creating chances and today we enjoyed it on the pitch because there was space to play.”

Mata, who rounded off the win with his fifth league goal of the season, was pleased with the clinical team performance after the disappointing draw against Hull City on Wednesday.

“One of the most difficult things in football is to create the chances and obviously we need to finish them,” he continued.

“Once you are 3-0 up it looks more comfortable. I know we had a lot of the ball but until the first goal it was difficult. I think we were playing good, we were playing calm with the ball and defending quite well.

“It is always important to be effective in front of the goal. We also missed some chances but 3-0 was more than enough. It was not just about winning the game, it was about winning with confidence and I think we can build from that.”

Mata was speaking to both MUTV and Sky Sports following the win.