That was about the only thing that came easily for United in a 2-1 win at
Hojlund netted twice in the opening seven minutes at
United spent much of the game hanging on after that, but managed to see out a fourth straight league victory that puts it just three points behind fifth-place
“We made it hard for ourselves today,” Hojlund said. “I was rubbing my hands a lot of times because I was quite nervous. I’m grateful for the win though, but a little bit lucky."
While this has been a disappointing season for Ten Hag's side, a top-four finish suddenly looks like a realistic prospect with Aston Villa five points in front in the final
“I think we are back in the race and we are building momentum,” Ten Hag said. “We need to build pressure. Every game is a final to get closer to them.”
And Hojlund's goals are the main reason for optimism at United, which suddenly seems to have a striker that can be relied on to find the net more often than not.
“He can perform under stress,” Ten Hag said of Hojlund. “And when things go against him like in the first half of the season, he has abilities to be a strong character and he’s determined to score goals. And that’s what we saw. ... You see he’s a fighter. He keeps going. And he has great abilities in front of the goal.”
Hojlund intercepted a poor pass by defender Amari’i Bell to run clear through on goal and round goalkeeper
The second came with a slice of luck when Alejandro Garnacho's shot after a corner struck Hojlund in the chest and bounced into the net.
United seemed to be headed for an easy win at that point, but turned out to need every bit of that two-goal cushion to stave off
The hosts dominated the rest of the first half and pulled one back through captain
United also had a number of opportunities to finish the game off on counterattacks in the second half, while
“We had some really massive chances (in the second half) and we should have scored,” Ten Hag said. “How we started the game was exactly how we wanted to do it. The only thing we didn’t do so well was to be clinical and score more goals.”
HOLGATE'S HORROR TACKLE
Holgate was sent off after just 13 minutes for a studs-up tackle on
Just one point would have been enough to lift
But
“Mason has to take the responsibility that his decision has hurt us and the gameplan goes out of the window after that," Wilder said. "It’s difficult when things like that — which, of course, was self inflicted — go against you.”
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