February 09, (THEWILL) –Â On Tuesday evening, Turf Moor witnessed a fixture of two halves, with Manchester United and Burnley sharing the honours in a thrilling 1-1 draw.
Soon after the 10th minute mark, United had the ball in the net, but Raphael Varane’s header was disallowed as VAR spotted an offside Harry Maguire impeding Jay Rodriguez in the build-up.
United did, however, take the lead eight minutes later. Luke Shaw picked Paul Pogba out in the box and the returning Frenchman rifled the ball into the roof of the net without hesitation.
Just minutes later, the ball was in the Burnley net once more, but it was also ruled out due to a questionable foul by Pogba.
On the half-hour mark, Edinson Cavani, who started ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, had a wonderful chance to make it 2-0, but a magnificent save from Nick Pope at point-blank range kept the score at 1-0 going into the break.
Burnley equalised just two minutes of the second half. Wout Weghorst beat Harry Maguire to the ball and slipped in Jay Rodriguez, who showed great calm to strike past David de Gea to tie the game up.
After that, Burnley really got into the game and might have easily had one or two more goals. Weghorst was a constant thorn in United’s side, and Rodriguez squandered a brilliant counter-attack, with United struggling to keep up at times.
Cristiano Ronaldo came on to try to save the day, but he squandered a golden opportunity to do so. With five minutes to go, he found himself alone in the area, but nevertheless managed to send his header over the bar.
Both teams pushed for a winner, with Ronaldo fluffing his lines once more. Weghorst looked particularly dangerous and put De Gea to the test on several occasions, but a draw seemed a fair outcome in the end.
Burnley’s confidence will be boosted as a result of their performance, although they remain in 20th place. United, on the other hand, have dropped to fifth place after yet another disappointing performance.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
