Marcus Rashford Says Manchester United 'Capable' of Manchester City Comeback
Rory Marsden@@roomarsden
Featured ColumnistJanuary 8, 2020
Marcus Rashford is confident Manchester United can still reach the Carabao Cup final despite losing their semi-final first leg to Manchester City 3-1 on Tuesday.
The Sky Blues may rue not being out of sight in the tie after going in at half-time at Old Trafford three goals to the good following strikes from Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and an Andreas Pereira own goal.
But Pep Guardiola's side are still fully in control of the semi-final despite Rashford giving United some hope with his 70th-minute goal.
The second leg takes place at the Etihad Stadium on January 29, when United will need a comeback akin to the one they pulled off against Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League last season to have a shot at a first piece of silverware in 2019-20.
It is a huge task, but Rashford said he thinks United can pull it off:
"It is a different game with different players, but what we found in Paris we have to find that within us again. We have to go there, score goals and win the game. I think we are capable of doing it. But let's just focus on [Saturday’s Premier League game against] Norwich for now and hopefully we can put this result behind us to bring the positivity back."
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will hope that by the time the second leg comes around, he has more fit players to call upon.
Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Eric Bailly, Marcos Rojo, Axel Tuanzebe, Paul Pogba and Scott McTominay were all sidelined for Tuesday's match, and Anthony Martial was only fit enough to start on the bench.
The Red Devils have shown this season they are capable of causing City plenty of problems at the Etihad.
In their Premier League clash there in early December, United came away 2-1 winners after a brilliant counter-attacking performance:
City have looked more vulnerable in 2019-20 than they have in their two previous title-winning seasons under Pep Guardiola and are trailing leaders Liverpool by 14 points in the Premier League.
At least in the first half on Tuesday, though, they looked back to their irresistible best.
Assuming United put in a much better performance in the return leg, they will still need the Sky Blues to have an off day if they are to have any chance of making the Carabao Cup final.