Marcus Rashford continued his clinical form in front of goal as he scored twice to help Manchester United claim a comfortable 3-0 victory over Leicester City in the Premier League on Sunday.
United could thank goalkeeper David De Gea for not being two goals down in the opening stages at Old Trafford as Leicester dominated in attack. The Spanish goalkeeper spread himself to deny opposing winger Harvey Barnes on eight minutes before producing an even better stop shortly after with a diving save to keep out a Kelechi Iheanacho header.
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The hosts took the lead on 25 minutes when in-form forward Rashford was sent through on goal and smashed home past goalkeeper Danny Ward — scoring for a sixth consecutive game in all competitions.
United went in at the break with a one-goal lead but pulled away from Leicester in the second half. First, Rashford doubled his side’s advantage with a calmly-taken finish on 56 minutes. The goal was initially ruled out by the assistant referee’s offside flag but was awarded following a VAR check.
Then winger Jadon Sancho played a superb one-two with Bruno Fernandes as he entered the Leicester box before comfortably striking home a third United goal.
The result moves United to within three points of second-placed Manchester City, but Erik ten Hag’s side must now turn their attention to the Carabao Cup where they face Newcastle United in next Sunday’s final at Wembley.
“We’re close, but both teams in front of us are good teams and playing good football. We have to just focus on ourselves, do as well as we can and keep picking up points,” Rashford told Sky Sports.
With a second-leg Europa League game against Barcelona and a cup final over Newcaslte coming up, United fans will be hoping Rashford’s prolific run continues.
“It’s still early in the season, we’re fighting for a lot of different things,” Rashford said.
“We have another big game in the week [against Barcelona] to hopefully go through to the next round of the Europa League and then a massive game for us [in the cup final],” he added.