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MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Substitute Marcus Rashford scored a magnificent hat-trick for Manchester United as they beat Germany’s RB Leipzig 5-0 at Old Trafford in Group H of the Champions League on Wednesday.
The forward, in the headlines recently due to his campaign for free school lunches, showed that he has not been distracted from his daily work as he came off the bench with 27 minutes to go and led United to an impressive victory.
Rashford is only the second United player to score a hat-trick as a substitute after coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did it against Nottingham Forest in 1999.
“I think the manager wanted me to pick up the pace. For us, that means moving forward. There were definitely gaps there. We looked dangerous at all times and we could score every time we moved forward,” Rashford said.
“It was a real team performance. Those who started did well and the substitutes did well.”
Having won at Paris St Germain in their opening game, United are now in a dominant position in the group and are beginning to look like a team with real strength in depth.
Solskjaer opted to leave Bruno Fernandes alongside Rashford on the bench and handed out starts to Paul Pogba and Donny van de Beek in midfield.
Mason Greenwood, also re-established in the starting lineup, opened the scoring in the 21st minute, achieving a clinical finish after Pogba dodged it.
The VAR review suggested Greenwood may have been narrowly offside, but the goal was allowed to stand.
Leipzig, who reached the semi-finals in last season’s competition, got the game well and could have drawn when Ibrahima Konate’s header was stopped by David De Gea.
Rashford replaced Greenwood in the 63rd minute and soon set out to decide the match.
The England forward accelerated a long ball from Fernandes to make it 2-0 in the 74th minute, and the initial offside was canceled in review.
Rashford made it 3-0 after Fred stole from Marcel Sabitzer and Anthony Martial added the fourth from the penalty spot after Sabitzer knocked him down.
The hat-trick, within 19 minutes, was completed in injury time when Rashford shot on goal after a good job by Martial cutting from the left.
(Reporting by Simon Evans, edited by Ed Osmond)
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