Rashford scores treble as clinical Man Utd hit RB Leipzig for five

Marcus Rashford Bruno Fernandes Manchester United TEAMtalk

Manchester United kept up their winning start in the Champions League with a 5-0 win over Bundelsiga side RB Leipzig, including a 16 minute Marcus Rashford hat-trick.

On the back of their impressive 2-1 win away to PSG last week, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side took on the Germans who also claimed three points on matchday one.

Amid a packed schedule of fixtures, they made a number of changes to their line-up with the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford benched.

Despite the alterations, United made a good start and had two early half-chances through Fred and Luke Shaw, however Leipzig were able to make a block on both occasions.

But having been comfortably the more dangerous side in the early stages, the Red Devils did go ahead in the 21st minute through Mason Greenwood. Paul Pogba slid a well-weighted pass in behind the defence to put the youngster through, and he calmly slotted the ball into the bottom right corner.

There was a VAR check on the goal with some suspicions that Greenwood was offside by the tightest of margins, but the goal stood.

Leipzig responded well to falling behind and created opportunities for Christopher Nkunku and Dayot Upemacano, but neither could find a leveler with their efforts.

From there, the German outfit looked comfortable in the game and had a large share of the possession, however they could not make it count in the remainder of the first half.

United had an optimistic penalty appeal turned down soon after the break when the ball hit Ibrahima Konaté’s arm while the defender was on the floor, but neither the on-field referee or VAR took much interest.

It was the home side who looked the more likely to score though, and forged an opening for Anthony Martial with some fluid one touch passing, but Konaté was again on hand to snuff out the danger.

Konaté was then involved at the other end, getting on the end of a free kick and forcing David de Gea into a save to keep United ahead.

Solskjaer brought on Fernandes and Rashford for the final 20 minutes, a move which quickly paid off.

In the 74th minute, Fernandes played a expertly timed ball through for the striker who raced away from the defence before finishing past Peter Gulacsi. The goal was initially ruled out as the linesman had flagged for offside, however it was eventually given after a VAR review showed that Rashford had started his run from within his own half.

And just four minutes later Rashford hit his second, brilliantly weaving his way through the surrounding defenders before powerfully finishing.

With confidence running high, United looked they could score with every attack and did add a fourth in the 87th minute when Anthony Martial scored from the penalty spot after he was brought down by Marcel Sabitzer.

Edinson Cavani also found the net, but he was correctly ruled offside as the Red Devils were denied a fifth.

But they did manage to score that fifth goal in stoppage time when Rashford drilled home his third after being teed up by Martial.

The win keeps United top of group H ahead of two meetings with İstanbul Başakşehir next up in Europe.