Izuchukwu OkosiManchester United recorded an impressive 3-0 victory Tuesday night over Nottingham Forest in their first Premier League game post the Cristiano Ronaldo era thanks to goals from Marcus Rashford, Antony Martial and Fred to close the gap on the top four.
Rashford found the top-left corner of the net in the 19th minute following a clever set-piece routine in which Christian Eriksen delivered a low corner into the penalty area.
United addded a second three minutes later, when Martial’s low effort from the edge of the penalty area was too hot for Wayne Hennessey to handle.
The Nigerian duo of Taiwo Awoniyi and Emmanuel Dennis were not able to find the back of the net with the former starting and his compatriot coming off the bench.
Second half substitute Fred added the third on 87 minutes after converting from close range, sliding the ball into the right side of the net after being played in by Casemiro who intercepted the ball just as Forest threatened to counter.
Dennis had lost possession of the ball leading to the goal. The Nigerians played for 60 and 29 minutes respectively on Tuesday.
Man United’s victory means they are now within one point of fourth placed Tottenham Hotspur with a match in hand.
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Forest, meanwhile, drop to 19th in the table just above Southampton.
Speaking post match, Marcus Rashford has revealed that he’s aiming to beat his season-best tally of 22 goals during the 2022/23 campaign.
The Manchester United forward has been in fantastic form in recent months for both club and country, scoring three World Cup goals in Qatar and 10 for his club to boot.
Rashford was once again in the goals Tuesday night in Man Utd’s comfortable 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest – scoring the opener from a training ground routine corner kick.
Speaking about the goal to Amazon Prime, Rashford revealed that Man Utd worked on exploiting a weakness that was spotted while they were analysing footage of Forest playing, stating:
“We didn’t practice it too much but it was definitely one from the training ground. We seen from some of their clips that they’re very man to man so if you can shift them all to the back half of the goal and create an overload we can get a good chance on goal. I’m happy that it came off, it’s something that we did work on.
“I feel comfortable in that position and I want to put myself in those positions and I want to score goals. I’ve spoke to him [Erik ten Hag] about putting me in the box for corners as well because usually I’m on the edge of the box but, you know, I want to be in the box and I want to be where the goals are scored.”
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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