Marcus Rashford scored in the third minute of added time to give Manchester United a 1-0 win over West Ham United on Saturday at Old Trafford.
Both sides are battling for a top four finish and the win sends United above West Ham with a game in hand.
“If you score in the last second of the game that is the best type of wins, a clean sheet. I think in the end we deserved to win. It takes patience to play West Ham. A few moments at the end I wished we would have passed the ball instead of shooting from wherever,” United coach Ralf Rangnick said after the match.
– Notebook: The inside stories from world football
– Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
“Bearing in mind we played a few days ago against Brentford, the team looked physically good. We knew it would take patience, the way we played defensively, won balls back, I was really happy with that.”
Bruno Fernandes whipped in a cross to Cristiano Ronaldo after 20 minutes in the first half and the 36-year-old was inches away from putting it in the net.
Ronaldo had a penalty call turned away 15 minutes later when Kurt Zouma brought him down in the box.
Jarrod Bowen had an opportunity to put the visitors ahead early in the second half when he brought the ball down onto his chest on the edge of the box but his shot went into the side netting.
Instead, it was Rashford who got a last gasp winner after Ronaldo played the ball to substitute Edinson Cavani who cut it back to the young England international for a tap in.
There was a VAR check after the goal to see if Cavani was offside in the build up but the goal was allowed.
“It is obviously an important goal and such late on is an amazing feeling. We have to use that winning feeling. We could have been a bit better on the ball but managed to get the goal we needed and can use that as motivation now,” Rashford said after the match.
“When there are two teams so close together in the table, both are fighting to be in front of one another and today we managed to get there. We are sitting fourth now, some teams have games to play, but it is nice to be in that position.
“The wins are what’s important, when you get wins, consecutive wins, you can really start to go on a run and that is what gives everyone confidence.
“We have had a difficult week, there have been many games in one week, so the break is needed. It’ll be good for us.”
Anthony Martial was brought on for Mason Greenwood on 82 minutes, just days after his public falling out with Rangnick.
Rangnick said that Martial didn’t want to be part of the squad for the Aston Villa game last week and the 26-year-old hit back on social media saying he would never refuse to play for United while at the club. However, the coach did say that the pair had had a conversation and sorted out their differences.