Odion Ighalo gets Man of the Match award after scoring a brace in Manchester United's FA Cup win against Derby
Ighalo now has three goals for Manchester United which came in his two starts.
Nigerian striker Odion Ighalo got Manchester United's Man of the Match award after scoring a brace for Manchester United in their 3-0 win away at Derby in the FA Cup on Thursday, March 5, 2020.
In just his second start for Manchester United, Ighalo scored in both halves to help the Red Devils progress to the quarterfinals.
His first goal came in the 33rd minute when he received a pass from Luke Shaw in the area, held off challenges from two defenders before finishing past the Derby goalkeeper to double United’s lead.
In the 70th minute, he got his second with his left foot again, smashing the ball into the roof of the net on the second attempt after his first shot was blocked by the goalkeeper.
He was impressive in the game and forced the goalkeeper to make a save at different times of the game.
The 30-year-old got Manchester United's Man of the Match award of the game. The official Man of the Match award went to Shaw.
“I’m happy I scored two goals today but most especially the team worked hard today even though we didn’t start the game well and after 20-25 minutes, we started playing and we got the goal,” the striker said in a video shared on Manchester United’s Twitter handle.
Ighalo now has three goals for Manchester United all in the two starts he has had since he joined on loan from Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua in January.
'He should have had a third'
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Despite his Man of the Match performance, Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said the striker should have scored a hattrick but praised the Nigerian for his goals.
“He should have had a third! Of course when you’ve got strikers you want them to be happy and confident going into the next game and we’ve got a big game on Sunday,” Solskjaer said.
“He’s come in here and of course we’ve still got a few injuries and Anthony [Martial] has struggled a little bit lately with some injuries so it’s great to have Odion to call upon and he’s a different type of striker. He holds it up well and he scores.
“For the first one tonight, the ball’s underneath him, not many strikers could dig that out.”
Ighalo will have a chance to further play himself into the hearts of Manchester United fans when they host Manchester City on Sunday, March, March 8.
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