If Marouane Fellaini had bowled into Jose Mourinho any harder celebrating his late goal that changed the face of this EFL Cup semi-final, then perhaps a yellow card for a reckless challenge might have been in order, although there were no complaints from the Manchester United manager.
On as a late substitute Fellaini scored with three minutes of this first leg remaining and in doing so made the second leg two weeks on Thursday considerably less tricky for United. It is by no means a certainty that they are on their way to the first Wembley final of Mourinho’s Old Trafford days but it is a lot more comfortable than the one-goal margin they had previously enjoyed.
Having stretched just enough to head in the goal that changed the tie, Fellaini made his way directly to Mourinho on the touchline for a man-hug that almost lifted his manager’s feet off the floor with the impact. As he pointed out later, Mourinho has kept his faith in Fellaini even at the nadir of the midfielder’s season, when he was booed for his performance against Everton.
Fellaini is back in the ascendance, the right peroxide afro in the right place at the right time. He reached Matteo Darmian’s deep cross to the back post to score against a Hull team who would have been pleased to get to the return leg on Jan 26 just one-goal behind. Juan Mata had poked in the first before the hour although for the big possession advantage that United had enjoyed it felt like scant reward for them.
Especially against a Hull team that had so few players available they could only name six on the substitutes’ bench instead of the maximum seven. Jake Livermore was withdrawn overnight with illness and Markus Henriksen had to come off after 19 minutes with what looked like a bad injury to his right shoulder. Josh Tymon also joined the walking wounded before the end by which time Marco Silva will have been wondering about the weekend’s game.
The new Hull manager had his name sung by the travelling support, although just 1,400 of the 9,000 allocation on offer was taken up. The home game against Bournemouth on Saturday is a big day for all concerned at the Kcom stadium and there was not the most convincing assurance that Robert Snodgrass will still be a Hull player in time for the second leg against United. “I hope so” Silva replied when asked if Hull would keep in the face of West Ham’s sustained interest.
Mourinho was also turning his mind towards the weekend and Sunday’s big one against Liverpool for which he implored the home support not “to come to the ‘theatre’” but instead to “come to play – play with us”. He declared himself dissatisfied with the performance and, with caveats about how highly he thought of the fans, he also complained about the level of atmosphere on the night.
The United manager had stalked off early down the tunnel before the end of the goalless first half, one of those gestures of his designed to get people’s attention. The game was dominated by United, and the big guns of their midfield in particular, Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but they struggled to unlock the away team.
There was the sub-plot of Wayne Rooney too, chasing that golden 250th goal and watched from the stand by the man he seeks to overhaul, Sir Bobby Charlton impassive under a trilby hat and probably wondering how the United captain missed a chance early in the second half. That came from a fabulous pass from Pogba that Rooney killed on the run before hitting a right-footed shot wide of the far post.
There was no Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the side for United, absent through illness for the first time this season other than the one game he served as a suspension although it sounds like he will be back for Sunday. That means that if Rooney is finally to break the United goalscoring record against the old enemy then he will have to do so having been summoned from the bench.
Marcos Rojo is another doubt for that game with what Mourinho described as a muscular problem. He was able to substitute Mkhitaryan before the end of the game to save his legs. The Armenian had some fine moments including a run at the end of the first half when he turned on the jets and glided away from a couple of Hull challenges before trying to slip the ball to Rooney, only for Marcus Rashford to get in the way.
Silva had selected Harry Maguire and Tom Huddlestone as his centre-backs and both of them are at the very least accomplished footballers. The always-adventurous Maguire channelled his inner Cristiano Ronaldo with one marvellous run and shot early in the game. Huddlestone has always been able to pick out a team-mate at 40 yards and between the two of them they did a decent job in difficult circumstances.
Henriksen went off with his right arm in a sling after just 19 minutes when he bounced off Pogba and landed awkwardly. Shortly before Rooney was replaced with Anthony Martial just before the hour, United had finally gone ahead with another move that came down the left side of Hull’s defence, from Pogba to Ander Herrera who was in a position to cross the ball.
Mkhitaryan got above David Meyler in commanding fashion to win the ball and although his header was outside the post, Mata was in just the right place to steer it on target. The second came when Martial won the ball on the left and Darmian picked out Fellaini at the back post for the kind of header that no-one does better. There was a roar as he embraced Mourinho and, not for the first time in his Old Trafford career, Fellaini was back in favour.
Mata continues to prove his worth
The expectation last summer was that Juan Mata would not last long at Manchester United with Jose Mourinho at the helm but the manager was determined to stick by the Spain midfielder and he has been rewarded with a consistency level few others at Old Trafford have matched this term.
His goal against Hull City in the first leg of this EFL Cup semi-final was his 33rd in all competitions in three years since being sold by Mourinho at Chelsea, a figure only Eden Hazard among Premier League midfielders can better over the same period.
Combine goals and assists and he has the same total – 53 – as Philippe Coutinho and David Silva at Liverpool and Manchester City, two fellow playmakers who tend to be talked about in much more glowing terms. That Mata has often been played out wide on the right at United to make way for Wayne Rooney and, latterly, Paul Pogba makes those statistics all the more impressive.