- First match since Mourinho sacking
- Lingard scores twice
- Camarasa nabs lone Bluebirds goal
Jesse Lingard scored twice as Manchester United won its first match under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with a 5-1 defeat of his former side, Cardiff City, at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.
Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera, and Anthony Martial also scored for Manchester United in the first match since the firing of manager Jose Mourinho.
Victor Camarasa converted a penalty for Cardiff’s only goal, as the Bluebirds conceded three or more goals for the eighth time this season.
United goes back into sixth with 29 points, while Cardiff remains 17th with 14 points.
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Solskjaer didn’t have to wait more than 180 seconds for his first goal as United boss, as Rashford scored a pinpoint free kick around the wall and inside the far post.
Calum Paterson and Luke Shaw knocked heads in the 13th minute, stopping play so both players could receive treatment.
Herrera and a wicked deflection combined to provide an aesthetically pleasing goal in the 29th, as Paul Pogba set up the Spaniard for a shot that knuckled into the goal after turning off Greg Cunningham.
Cardiff re-entered the game when Rashford was judged to have handled the ball in the box, and Camarasa finished his chance from the spot and it was 2-1 in the 38th.
Martial barely required more than a couple of minutes to make it 3-1, working one-touch passing with Pogba and Jesse Lingard before beating Neil Etheridge.
[ MORE: Latest Premier League standings ]3 - Man Utd have scored three first half goals in a Premier League away game for the first time since November 2017 v Watford. Reaction. #CARMUN pic.twitter.com/ENU4COALZJ
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 22, 2018
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Lingard won a penalty with a dribble through traffic, as Sol Bamba appeared the likeliest to have taken down the United man with a tug on the arm. He converted his own chance to make it 4-1.
Cardiff backstop Neil Etheridge got the slightest touch on Rashford’s bid to make it 5-1, set up by a Victor Lindelof (?!?) dribble in the 63rd minute.
David De Gea had to make a save when Josh Murphy had a 15-yard shot in the 64th.
Kenneth Zohore couldn’t sneak a shot past De Gea, winning a corner in the 77th minute.