Soccer

Rashford paves the way as United ease past Forest

Rashford, Martial and Fred found the net in United’s first Premier League outing since the World Cup, to pile more misery on a struggling Forest side.

PHIL NOBLEREUTERS

An in-form Marcus Rashford opened the scoring for Manchester United as Erik ten Hag’s men strolled to a 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night in the Premier League. Rashford, who ended England’s World Cup campaign with three goals, put United ahead on 19 minutes, meeting Christian Eriksen’s corner to fire a first-time finish past Wayne Hennessey. It took the No.10′S tally for the season into double figures.

Martial makes it two

Rashford was involved when United went 2-0 up just three minutes later, supplying Anthony Martial with a squared ball on the edge of the area - Hennessey could do little other than parry the French forward’s strike which trickled over the line.

Forest thought they had pulled a goal back on 40 minutes when Willy Boly nodded in from a set-piece but after being reviewed by VAR, the goal was chalked off for offside. It was as close as the visitors would get to getting back into the game. United increased their lead late on after Casemiro released Fred to slot in the team’s third of the night, to put the seal on a win which moves Ten Hag’s side within a point of fourth place. United have lost only once in the league since October’s humbling 6-3 defeat to Manchester City. Defeat keeps Forest second from bottom in 19th.

Rashford aiming to beat personal best

A delighted Rashford told Amazon Prime Sport after the game that he is a step closer to reaching his own personal target for the season. “Every forward always has a number that they want to try and reach,” he explained. “For me, it’s to score more than I’ve ever scored in a season. I think it’s 22 or 23. I’m enjoying what I’m doing at the minute. We’re winning more games and I think the level of play has been a lot higher,” he added. “I’m happy with the way that we’re developing at the minute, and hopefully we can keep kicking on. It’s a completely different mindset to last season, a different team playing different football. We should be scoring plenty more goals in plenty more games.”

Rashford’s best season so far was in 2019/20 when he finished on 22 goals in all competitions.

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