At the expense of League One Charlton, Marcus Rashford struck twice late to up his season total to 15 goals and advance Manchester United to the Carabao Cup semifinal at Old Trafford.
United had the edge thanks to Antony’s excellent first-half goal, but Dean Holden’s visitors were widely credited for their fightback up until second-half replacement Rashford scored twice in the final two minutes to give United a sixth straight victory.
The 9,000-strong Charlton traveling crowd, their largest ever for a midweek cup match, cheered their team on as they left the field. They had supported them throughout, and when Scott Fraser curled his free-kick straight at Tom Heaton, there was briefly hope for an equalizer.
For United, it marks eight straight victories and a third trip in the final four of this competition in the six seasons since they last won a domestic championship when they did it in 2017 under Jose Mourinho.
The last two games were lost to Manchester City, who United will play on Saturday at Old Trafford in the Premier League.
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After the game, United manager ten Hag claimed he was “very delighted” with the opening 30 minutes but “was less happy we were not clinical in front of goal.”
The Dutchman claimed, “We had to be in that semi final and we accomplished the job.
I believe we had to wrap things up quickly, but the team deserves praise for accomplishing the goal.
For the first time since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s great start to his job in the middle of the 2018–19 season, Ten Hag’s team will enter the most recent Manchester derby with eight straight victories.
With great hopes that they will avoid the humiliating first half they had at Etihad Stadium, when they trailed 4-0, this victory was achieved with a team missing at least seven players who were supposed to be in the starting lineup for United against City.
Since then, there has been tremendous growth. And they have Antony, an £81.3 million winger who has now scored in back-to-back games and provides wide areas trickery straight out of the United heritage.
First-half goal by the Brazilian was heavily dependent on Diogo Dalot. The Portugal full-injury back’s prevented him from playing in the first half, but it was his off-the-ball run into the Charlton penalty area that allowed Antony to receive Fred’s square pass and curl a beautiful effort into the far corner.