{"id":2373,"date":"2019-02-28T10:46:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T10:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.incirliseviye.com\/2019\/02\/28\/a-one-man-show-where-would-man-utd-be-without-zlatan\/"},"modified":"2019-02-28T10:46:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T10:46:43","slug":"a-one-man-show-where-would-man-utd-be-without-zlatan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=2373","title":{"rendered":"A one-man show – Where would Man Utd be without Zlatan?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Swede stepped up when his side needed him to net twice in the 3-2 EFL Cup win over Southampton <\/div>\n
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COMMENT <\/span><\/p>\n

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It was a cup final with absolutely everything. There was controversy, drama, a stirring comeback, a fabulous capacity crowd, and a succession of errors helping to make for wide open, heart-stopping football. But every big match needs a hero\u00a0and, when the time came, Zlatan Ibrahimovic stepped up once again for Manchester United. And boy, did they need him.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Man Utd target Dembele\u2019s double <\/p>\n

Southampton will curse their rotten luck having been the better side on the day and seeing a stick-on opening goal cancelled out by poor officiating but it was ultimately their inability to deal with Ibrahimovic which settled the EFL Cup final in United\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

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United looked vulnerable from the start, with crosses from both wings flashing freely across the face of goal early on. Down the left flank in particular the Red Devils looked weak, with Marcos Rojo isolated and attacked time and again.<\/p>\n

There was a let-off from one such situation when Manolo Gabbiadini\u2019s strike was ruled out by an erroneous offside call. But Saints just didn\u2019t respond well enough to the setback and, when Oriol Romeu made a dangerous challenge 25 yards from goal, Zlatan punished him wonderfully by curling the resulting free-kick over the wall.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Jesse Lingard\u2019s third goal in three club games at Wembley should have been enough to secure the trophy before half-time, but Southampton made a point of going back at United\u2019s glaring weaknesses. Another low cross was turned home by Gabbiadini as the Reds stood and watched on the cusp of the interval, then Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling were caught on the back foot as Gabbiadini reacted brilliantly to Steven Davis\u2019 header and the scores were level.<\/p>\n

Man Utd let off with disallowed goal <\/p>\n

It was the least the Saints had deserved as they continued to make United look atrocious at the back and, during a period which saw Romeu hit the post with a free header, the odds had to favour Claude Puel\u2019s side. United, again, were riding their luck.<\/p>\n

But that just set the stage for Zlatan. With little more than three minutes to go, he ghosted in off the back of Ryan Bertrand to head home Ander Herrera\u2019s cross from the edge of the six-yard box. Just as happened when United came here in August for the Community Shield, Ibrahimovic had won it with a header from a right-wing cross.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

His 26th goal of the season earned him the right to lift a 32nd major trophy of his phenomenal career. And, for all the talk that he had become a one-man team at Paris Saint-Germain, this was truly a solo bail-out job for an otherwise second-best United.<\/p>\n

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Given the way they constantly gave up spaces and chances to the underdogs, this will not be a final that will live long in the hearts of United fans but for any other reason than Zlatan\u2019s game-winning contribution.<\/p>\n

They would have been lost without him.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Swede stepped up when his side needed him to net twice in the 3-2 EFL Cup win over Southampton COMMENT It was a cup final with absolutely everything. There was controversy, drama, a stirring comeback, a fabulous capacity crowd, and a succession of errors helping to make for wide open, heart-stopping football. But every … <\/p>\n

Read more “A one-man show – Where would Man Utd be without Zlatan?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-league-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}