Player Ratings: Mata, Rashford and Greenwood help United breeze past Luton; Henderson clean sheet

Manchester United beat Luton Town 3-0 at Kenilworth Road in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saw his rotated side struggle in the first half but win a late penalty which was scored by Juan Mata on his 200th start for the club. Late in the second half, minutes after a triple substitution, United struck into life with Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood scoring to secure the victory for United, who face Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday.

There was not much to write about from the first half of the match which should have seen United put Luton away but didn’t. It shows the story of this United squad with most of the quality either rested or on the bench. United lack quality in depth. It was a penalty that separated the two sides after Brandon Williams was brought down inside the box bu George Moncur and Juan Mata, on his 200th start for United, scoring his 49th goal for the club, from the penalty spot.

The second half was not much better for United with attacks being slowed down by Jesse Lingard, who looked so much out of his depth. United were still riding their luck with that penalty but did not seem to be doing much to stretch that lead and put themselves into a position of advantage. Solskjaer made a triple substitution in the 79th minute of the match with Mason Greenwood, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford replacing Odion Ighalo, Donny van de Beek and Juan Mata.

United doubled their lead in the 88th minute of the game with Greenwood playing the ball into Rashford, which seemed like it came off the defender and putting United 2-0 up. That was not it for United though with Greenwood thundering through on goal into added time, doing some stepovers in the box and firing diagonally across the goal and into the back of the net. United wrapped up a 3-0 victory against Luton which puts them into the third round against Brighton and Hove Albion or Preston North End.

[player_ratings id=”108948″]

Goals: Juan Mata 44′ penalty, Marcus Rashford 88′, Mason Greenwood 90+2′

Assists: Mason Greenwood 88′, Bruno Fernandes 90+2′

Manchester United: Henderson; Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Williams; Fred, Matic; Mata (Rashford 79′), Van de Beek (Fernandes 79′), Lingard; Ighalo (Greenwood 79′)

Substitutes Not Used: Grant; Dalot, Mengi; James

Bookings: Peter Kioso 67′, Danny Hylton 85′; Brandon Williams 57′

Written by John Walker

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I support Manchester United, the greatest English football team to have ever existed. Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of players with great ability to play for the club. I idolised Bryan Robson, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and Eric Cantona growing up.