For more than an hour at Old Trafford, Manchester United’s refusal to sign a striker in the transfer window looked like an act of sheer folly.
They trailed Premier League strugglers Leicester City and hadn’t even managed a shot on goal. Ruben Amorim was facing his second Old Trafford defeat in the space of six days and the FA Cup holders were facing the lamest of exits.
Amorim had talked before this fourth-round tie about the ‘risk’ of allowing Marcus Rashford to join Aston Villa on loan without signing a replacement before the window closed, and it was about to backfire spectacularly after a lifeless first-half display.
Then Amorim sent on Alejandro Garnacho at half-time and he breathed life into a woeful United side, setting up an equaliser for another substitute Joshua Zirkzee.
We were heading towards extra-time and the prospect of penalties against after United’s shootout win at Arsenal in the third round when Harry Maguire, the former Leicester player, headed a dramatic winner in the last of three minutes added on by referee Michael Salisbury.
Bruno Fernandes aimed a free kick from the touchline towards the edge of the six-yard box and there was Maguire, signed for £80million in 2019, to plant a header into the back of the net.
Harry Maguire headed Man United into the FA Cup fourth round with an injury time effort
The Man United defender appeared to be in an offside position before netting the winner
Leicester had appeared to have done enough to force extra-time before Maguire’s late goal
Leicester must be sick of the sight of United. This was their third defeat at Old Trafford this season and their second cup exit after losing here in the Carabao Cup.
By a quirk of fate, United found themselves up against Leicester and Van Nistelrooy as they continued their defence of the trophy. The Dutchman’s first and last games of his four-match stint as United’s interim manager after Erik ten Hag was sacked in October were against Leicester here, knocking the Foxes out of the Carabao Cup with a 5-2 win and beating them in the Premier League 3-0.
It wasn’t enough to get him the United job full-time, or indeed a place on Amorim’s backroom team, the Portuguese coach explaining on the eve of this game that it wouldn’t have been right to promote Van Nistelrooy ahead of his own staff or equally give him a bit-part role.
‘I had to focus to go in the right dressing-room,’ Van Nistelrooy, an FA Cup winner with United in 2004, joked to ITV before kick-off.
His unbeaten spell as United boss was significantly better than his record of eight defeats in 12 games at Leicester. Awkwardly for Amorim, it was also an improvement on his eight defeats in 19 games, and he came into this game once again needing a win to lift the spirits after Sunday’s setback against Crystal Palace.
Patrick Dorgu was thrown straight into action following his £29.4million move from Lecce, but strangely started on the right having been signed primarily as a left-wingback.
Noussair Mazraoui replaced Lisandro Martinez on the left-hand side of Amorim’s back-three after the Argentine suffered an ACL injury against Palace, and Rasmus Hojlund returned to lead the attack after an unsuccessful experiment with Kobbie Mainoo as a false nine.
Dorgu made an encouraging start, it has to be said, but otherwise a first half lacking in quality was the same old story for United as they fired blanks in front of goal and found themselves behind before the interval.
Joshua Zirkzee equalised from close range after Ramus Hojlund saw an effort blocked
Bobby Decordova-Reid gave Leicester a shock lead with a header after an Andre Onana save
Man United had found themselves facing the prospect of a second home defeat in six days
Leicester threatened as early as the sixth minute when James Justin’s long ball landed in between Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro who allowed Patson Daka to get inbetween them and tee up Jordan Ayew for a shot straight at Andre Onana.
United assumed the upper hand for much of the half without every really threatening Mads Hermansen in the Leicester goal. They were quite shockingly short of ideas and energy.
Dorgu was given a chance to run on goal when Luke Thomas misjudged Diogo Dalot’s crossfield pass, but he played a pass straight at Caleb Okoli with options in the box.
When Thomas brought down Dorgu, Bruno Fernandes squared the free kick for Amad Diallo to try his luck from the edge of the box but Ayew was able to block. From the corner, Diallo invited Dorgu to have a go but his effort was well over.
United had a warning in the 26th minute when Ayew’s great throughball gave Bobby De Cordova-Reid an opportunity to fire over the bar from a difficult angle, and the visitors took the lead four minutes before half-time.
Dorgu got a header to Hermansen’s punt upfield and the ball fell to Manuel Ugarte who tried and failed to shield it from Boubakary Soumare.
It was fed to Bilal El Khannouss and he accelerated past Yoro before squaring a pass to Wilfred Ndidi inside the box. The Leicester captain’s side-footed effort was blocked by Onana but De Cordova-Reid, standing in between Dalot and Mazraoui in the six-yard box, reacted quickest to nod home.
Amorim sent on Alejandro Garnacho for Dorgu at half-time and Joshua Zirkzee shortly after that to try and salvage the tie.
Patrick Dorgu was give his Man United debut by Ruben Amorim and lined-up on the right flank
Alejandro Garnacho came on for Dorgu at half-time and was central to Man United’s fightback
Caleb Okoli produced a goal line clearance against his own crossbar during the second half
United came agonisingly close to an equaliser in the 65th minute when Ugarte released Garnacho and he raced clear into the box. Wout Faes got a touch on his shot – United’s first on target in the whole game – which lifted the ball over Hermansen and towards goal.
However, Okoli got back just in time and his miscued clearance rebounded off the underside of the bar and into the arms of Hermansen.
Leicester’s reprieve was shortlived though as Garnacho helped make the breakthrough three minutes later. Yoro fed the Argentina winger down the left and he sped away from De Cordova-Reid before squaring. Hojlund’s attempted flick was blocked by Faes and fell kindly to Zirkzee to fire home.
Garnacho fired into the side-netting after Dalot’s pass had given him a clear sight of goal and we were heading for extra-time when Maguire of all people popped up in the 93rd minute.
