Nottingham Forest 0, Manchester United 1 (FA Cup)
Manchester United beat Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup with a vitally important late set piece goal by Casemiro.
Both sides lacked quality going forward and United left it until the 89th minute to score the winner after Casemiro bravely headed the Reds into a record 48th Quarter Final spot.
The Brazilian reacted first to Bruno Fernandes’ low free kick and got ahead of the Forest defence to potentially play the Mark Robins role for his under-pressure manager Erik Ten Hag in a lacklustre game at the City Ground.
Embed from Getty ImagesTen Hag had made three changes to the side that lost to Fulham at the weekend.
Harry Maguire missed out with a sore knee while Kobbie Mainoo and Omari Forson were dropped to the bench.
Sofyan Amrabat, Scott McTominay, and Antony were selected for this game which would see the winners face either Liverpool or Southampton at home in the Quarter Final.
Recognising his chance to impress the hard working Antony hit the crossbar with a curling shot after 4 minutes following a corner routine between Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho while Scott McTominay headed straight at Matt Turner in the Forest goal after a great cross by Diogo Dalot.
After a good start clear chances were harder to come by with another McTominay header from a Dalot cross saved by American ‘keeper Turner.
After a promising start the game had become scrappy, despite United edging possession and shots coming in for both sides the first half ended a tame spectacle as Forest failed the take advantage of the counter attacks that came their way.
Taiwo Aiwoniyi was selfish in the first half and went for goal with a poor shot but he went closer in the second half after Anthony Elanga sent him clean through but his shot was too close to Andre Onana.
Onana punched out a cross from Morgan Gibbs-White and a shot from Divock Origi as Forest got closer.
Marcus Rashford, playing up front again, had a soft penalty claim turned down as United looked to be struggling for chances themselves with Bruno Fernandes trying to extravagantly whip the ball into the top corner but failing to hit the target.
Fernandes had another shot that was flicked wide by McTominay and United’s first change came in the 72nd minute when Amad Diallo replaced Antony who faded after a promising start.
And Diallo had an effort fall into Turner’s hands shorty after he came on.
Murillo’s long range shot was easily saved by Onana while Rashford blazed over after Bruno Fernandes set him up albeit at an awkward wide angle.
Gibbs-White forced a superb save from Onana only to find he was in an offside position in the build up as the original 90 minutes ticked down.
Dalot won a free kick after going down under a challenge from Anthony Elanga and Fernandes’ low free kick was headed past Turner by Casemiro from 4 yards out in the 89th minute – his 5th goal of the season.
A VAR check for offside provided more tension as the goal was checked repeatedly before the goal was ratified.
And United had to sit out a massive 10 minutes of stoppage time before they could relax as their hosts tried but failed to get back into the game.