We Fight To The End

Marcus Rashford was delighted to score the winner in Manchester United’s Europa League quarter-final victory over Anderlecht on Thursday, wrapping up a 3-2 aggregate success.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan broke the deadlock and Sofiane Hanni later equalised for the Belgian visitors, before the Reds dominated the tie but could not find a breakthrough in normal time. That led to Rashford netting in the 109th minute of extra time to secure a place in Friday’s semi-final draw in Nyon, Switzerland.

“All you can do is keep trying and we did that,” Marcus told BT Sport. “At the end of the second half, we all started pushing as a team and pinned them back. It was what the game needed at that time. We kept going all the way until the end. We had a lot of chances where we could have scored a lot of goals, but in games like these it happens. We got the goal in the end and everyone is happy.”

Expanding on the subject of United’s missed chances throughout a dominant second-half display, Rashford continued: “You just have to keep going and hope that you get another chance and I think we did that as a team tonight. We created chances from the second half onwards and we could have easily won the game, but we did it the hard way. None of that matters now though.”

Michael Carrick was captain for the night in the absence of Wayne Rooney and the evergreen 35-year-old is pleased to be through. “We got the win in the end,” he said. “In the first half we didn’t start well, I know we got the goal, but we didn’t capitalise on that and we didn’t play great football.

“In the second half we pegged them back, created a few chances and again we were thinking it was going to be one of those nights. Thankfully Marcus put one away, it was a tremendous finish with his left foot. It is a cup competition, you have just got to get through and we have done that.

“People are asking if we are going to prioritise the league or the cup. We have got to fire on all fronts. We have a duty to do that. We have still got a chance in both competitions and it is great to have cup ties, nights like these, when you win and go through. There is a great belief in the squad, great confidence, a great atmosphere and hopefully we can carry that on until the end of the season.”

The only negatives from the quarter-final victory were the injuries suffered by Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who were both forced to leave the action. “Yeah it is disappointing,” Carrick said. “We have played a lot of games and a few of the boys were carrying knocks going into the game. It is disappointing and hopefully they are not too serious because they are two big players for us.”