‘Can’t stop smiling, I’ve waited a long time for that’: Marcus Rashford delighted with his first EVER Manchester United hat-trick as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s hails star’s ‘focus’
- Marcus Rashford netted his first Manchester United hat-trick on Wednesday
- Striker came off the bench in the 63rd minute in 5-0 win over RB Leipzig
- After scoring in the 74th minute he took just over 15 minutes to complete treble
- Rashford then shared his delight over first hat-trick with a Twitter post
Marcus Rashford came off the bench to fire a stunning hat-trick as Manchester United thrashed RB Leipzig at Old Trafford.
United’s man of the moment, who was the hero of their Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain last week, took just 18 minutes to score his first treble for the club in a 5-0 rout.
Rashford also emulated his manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the only substitutes in United’s history to come on and score a hat-trick.
Marcus Rashford came off the bench to score a hat-trick for Manchester United on Wednesday
He netted a treble in the 5-0 demolition of RB Leipzig in the Champions League group stage
The England striker posted a message on social media saying: ‘Can’t stop smiling, I’ve waited a long time for that. Just wish the fans were in to experience it with me.’
Rashford replaced Mason Greenwood – the scorer of United’s opening goal with his first shot in the Champions League – in the 63rd minute and could have got another but agreed to let Anthony Martial take a penalty for the fourth.
‘A little bit (of a discussion) yeah, but I feel confident with Anthony taking them as well so there was no problem,’ he added.
It was his first treble for the Red Devils and he admitted he ‘couldn’t stop smiling’
‘The manager told me when I came on to up the tempo and, of course, for us it means going forward and there was definitely spaces there.
‘We managed to find the gaps. We looked like we could score every time we went forward.’
Solskjaer, who scored his hat-trick off the bench against Nottingham Forest in February 1999, paid tribute to Rashford but tried to manage expectations after Paul Scholes told BT Sport that the youngster could score 25 goals this season.
‘Now is not the time to think about how many goals you’re going to end up with, as long as you concentrate on the next job in hand, training tomorrow, of course he only played 30 minutes,’ said the United boss.
Rashford may have even had four goals before relenting to designated penalty taker Anthony Martial over a United spot-kick five minutes before landing his treble in stoppage time
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was full of praise for the striker’s focus after his second half showing
‘One step at a time. If you get too far ahead of yourself, you’re going to lose focus. Marcus has showed he can keep focusing on what’s important on and off the pitch at the moment.
‘He did really well today coming off the bench.
‘Before the game I said Anthony was going to take that penalty and that’s it. If you look at the starting squad, it was either Anthony or Paul (Pogba) to take it and Paul was taken off.’
Solskjaer revealed that new signing Alex Telles was unavailable after testing positive for coronavirus.
Rashford has followed his boss in becoming only the second United player to score a hat-trick from off the bench after Solskjaer scored four in an 8-1 win at Nottingham Forest in 1999
Solskjaer applauds his side after they opened up their European campaign with two wins
‘He’s been out for a few days, no symptoms though so he’ll be fine, back soon.’
Victory gives United firm control of Group H after beating last season’s finalists PSG and now the semi-finalists as well.
It was a chastening experience for Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann, one of the brightest young coaches in Europe, who saw the Bundesliga leaders taken apart towards the end.
‘It’s a bad result for us,’ said Nagelsmann. ‘It was a bit crazy because after we conceded the first goal I thought we did well.
‘I said to the lads 2-0 wouldn’t have been bad but it was 5-0 so now it doesn’t make our journey any easier.’
