Manchester United have won at Elland Road, beating Leeds United 4-2 in the Premiership to keep their top four hopes alive.
It was a tense start to the game, with both sides scrappy in their play and giving the ball away cheaply.
A late challenge on Wan-Bissaka was waved away by the referee and it set Leeds up nicely as the United players waited for the referee. Luckily Leeds couldn’t capitalise as the ball went soaring over the bar.
It was an injury prone first half with Robin Koch receiving a nasty head injury as he collided with McTominay and needing his head bandaging. However, after initially returning to the pitch he had to leave after the half hour mark.
It was Fernandes next who hit the deck. It was a rough match that the ref didn’t seem to have a grip on.
United made the breakthrough in the 34th minute, breaking their poor record from set pieces. Maguire rose higher than everyone to head home a Shaw corner.
Leeds made some good runs and attacks with Dan James having a good game.
However it was United who got the next goal to extend their lead to two. Sancho with a lovely chip which found the head of Fernandes, who had made a good run on the stroke of half time.
United were fully in control at the break but Leeds came out fighting, scoring two goals in just twenty-four seconds as United fell apart.
First it was the turn of Rodrigo who struck it from a tight angle quite far out, it hit the post and went in.
Then came a goal for Raphinha, who came storming in at the back post to meet a cross from Dan James.
Momentum swung Leeds’ way as their attacks were relentless. Meanwhile, United’s chances came from set pieces but they couldn’t repeat what they had done in the first half.
Paul Tierney found the cards in the second half as a number of rash challenges were made on both sides in the waterlogged conditions.
Ralf Rangnick made the right substitutions, with Fred making an instant impact. A good team goal began with Fernandes who found Ronaldo, who played it into Fred. A nice one-two between him and Sancho saw Sancho back heel it into Fred’s path, who fired it home from a tight angle into the roof of the net.
It felt like only a matter of time before someone would be sent off as tensions kept on rising.
David de Gea kept United’s lead with another fantastic save as he tipped a powerful strike over the bar.
United put the game to bed though in the 88th minute as substitute Anthony Elanga slotted it past the keeper after Fernandes unselfishly passed to him in the box.
In the final minute of normal time tensions boiled over and a fight broke out between the players following a bad tackle on Elanga. Ralf Rangnick went running onto the pitch to break the players apart.
It was all over and United extended the gap between them and West Ham in fifth.
Team: de Gea, Maguire, Shaw, Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka, Sancho, Lingard (Elanga 67), Fernandes, Ronaldo (Varane 85), McTominay, Pogba (Fred 67)