SCORE: 1st Half

MANCHESTER UNITED (Rashford) 1-0 ASTON VILLA

---

If anything is wrong, don't hesitate to PM me. Suggestions also welcome!

Barclays Premier League Tie between Manchester United and Aston Villa

---

Date: April 16th, 2016

---

Kick off BST: 15:00

---

Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester

---

---

Starting XI's:

Manchester United F.C.	Aston Villa F.C
De Gea	Guzan
Valencia	Hutton
Blind	Clark
Smalling	Lescott
Rojo	Cissokho
Fellaini	Bacuna
Schneiderlin	Westwood
Rooney	Gana
Mata	Richardson
Rashford	Sinclair
Memphis	Ayew

Man Utd F.C. SUBS: Romero, Darmian, Fosu-Mensah, McNair, Young, Lingard, Martial.

Aston Villa F.C. SUBS: Richards, Sanchez, Gil, Bunn, Lyden, Gestede, Grealish.

---

Team news:

• Rooney returns as our captain for Martial who gets a rest..

• Memphis is in for Lingard.

• Valencia also returns to the starting lineup with Fosu-Mensah and Darmian on the bench.

---

UPDATES:

FIRST HALF UPDATES:

0' KICK OFF

0' Villa kick off in yellow attacking the Stretford End. United in red.

7' United start well with Valencia and Memphis both getting involved. We get a corner taken short that results in another corner. Nothing comes of it though until Rooney earns a free kick at the other corner flag.

14' I don't think we've had a shot yet but a lot of possession in the Villa half. Working it around their box etc.

15' Blind and Schneiderlin have both been looking to feed passes in behind and I'm not going to lie, it feels good to have Rooney back out there. Our fifth corner of the game comes to nothing.

23' After our 7th(8th?) corner of the game, Mata is fed through and takes a wild swipe at the ball with his left foot that goes out for a throw in. I guess that was a shot? 69% possession though so far!

31' MANCHESTER UNITED GOAL RASHFORD SCORES! ROONEY SPREADS A LONG BALL TO VALENCIA WHO DRILLS A LOW CROSS ACROSS GOAL TO RASHFORD WHO TAPS IT IN EASILY. 1-0.

40' With five minutes to go until the half, United haven't really looked stressed at any point. Not a whole lot of attacking prowess from United though, but just enough to be in the lead.

45' ONE MINUTE ADDED

45' Ayew just came close after finding a yard of space in the box but his shot was blocked before it got to De Gea.

45+1' Very good interplay between Mata, Valencia, and Rooney leads to none of them taking a shot and the chance is wasted.

HALF TIME

---

---

SECOND HALF UPDATES:

45' SECOND HALF KICK OFF

45' United kick off the second half attacking the Stretford End.

47' Rashford is fed through twice in quick succession but he can't hit the target.

50' We've hit our mark of 10 corners in the match. Literally none of them have resulted in a chance though.

59' Memphis has been trying to get more involved in this half, with a few chances to cut in and a shot that went high and wide.

63' A CORNER RESULTS IN A CHANCE! A low pass to the near post comes to Mata who takes a swing at it but Guzan gets behind the ball and saves well.

64' Memphis is taken out hard in the middle of the pitch, as is Rashford. It'll be a free kick from range that Memphis is lining up for.

65' The shot is about a yard over the bar.

66' MANCHESTER UNITED SUBSTITUTION Lingard ON || Rooney OFF

75' Almost on cue, Aston Villa are starting to pile on the pressure to turn this into a nervous last 15 minutes for us. They've gotten a corner and have been pressing a bit.

76' MANCHESTER UNITED SUBSTITUTION Martial ON || Rashford OFF

81' ASTON VILLA SUBSTITUTION Gestede ON || Richardson OFF

82' Valencia gets absolutely skinned by Sinclair and it takes incredible last-ditch defending from Blind to stop a tap in from Gestede. Villa have a corner.

83' VILLA HIT THE POST! GESTEDE WITH A VOLLEY FROM THE BALL IN AND IT HITS THE POST AND IS BEHIND FOR ANOTHER CORNER!

84' De Gea finally gathers from a strong Villa header but the fact that we're resorting to packing up shop and defending in the last minutes against Villa is absolutely shameful.

85' Again, as is tradition this season, United can't string together three passes in the final minutes when it's actually important for us to maintain possession.