Manchester United suffered a surprising loss against the last in the standings Sheffield United at Old Trafford with 2-1 in the 20th round of the Premier League. The goals for the winners were scored by Kean Bryan and Oliver Burke, who scored just four minutes after appearing in the game. For Manchester Harry Maguire scored in the 64th minute. This was the first loss of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s players in the last 14 matches in Premier League and only the second victory for the Blades since the beginning of the season.
Manchester started more active, but the guests created the first real goal opportunity in the 17th minute, when a long pass deep in the half of the Red Devils found Billy Sharp, he managed to overtake Harry Maguire, but his shot was excellently reflected by David de Gea. Only a few minutes later, however, Sheffield scored the first goal in the match. John Fleck crossed sharply in the small penalty area from a corner, Axel Tuanzebe and De Gea collided, Kean Bryan took advantage of this, sending the ball into the net.
In the 30th minute, Anthony Martial’s goal was disallowed, as Harry Maguire had committed a foul against goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale. The Red Devils tried to be active, but never managed to break through the dense defense of the guests, and in turn they responded with dangerous counterattacks.
After the break Sheffield were the first to have the opportunity to score again. In the 55th minute David McGoldrick made a dangerous shot from the edge of the penalty area, but it went near the post of De Gea. In the 62nd minute, Marcus Rashford took a direct free kick for a foul against Martial from about 30 meters almost in front of the door, but Aaron Ramsdale had no problems and nailed the ball in his hands. It was after a corner that came the moment of the captain of Manchester Harry Maguire, he scored with a very strong and accurate shot for 1-1.
Ten minutes after the equalizer, Sheffield United made a good counterattack from the right, followed by two identical crosses to Oliver Burke, the first of which was cleared , but in the second Burke was unmarked and made a shot that bounced off Axel Tuanzebe’s leg and flew into the net for 1-2 in favor of Sheffield.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer resorted to all his weapons from the bench and Donnie Van de Beek and Edison Cavani appeared on the field, and the latter definitely contributed to a certain sharpness of the attacks, which was missing until now.
In the final minutes, the Red devils tried to put pressure to avoid defeat, but continued to have problems with the excellent defense of the hosts and failed to create real goal chances.
The Red Devils are second, a point away from the leaders in the Manchester City, but also with one game more. Over the weekend, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s players have a difficult visit to Arsenal in London. The victory left Sheffield in the last place in the standings, but now only three points behind 19th West Bromwich Albion.
