Manchester United Comeback To Beat Newcastle United

A 90th-minute goal by Alexis Sanchez helped Manchester United complete an unlikely comeback and claim a 3-2 win over Newcastle at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Juan Mata and Anthony Martial also scored in the second half for United, who came back from a two-goal deficit to end a run of four games without a win in all competitions — form that has manager Jose Mourinho under fire.

Newcastle, who began the day second-bottom in the table on goal difference, had not held a lead in any league game this season before Kenedy opened the scoring in the seventh minute.

The on-loan Chelsea forward ran onto a pass from Ayoze Perez and dribbled once before turning Ashley Young around and firing right-footed for his first goal of the season.

Yoshinori Muto, a summer signing making his first start for Newcastle, doubled the lead three minutes later with a low strike past David De Gea’s right foot after controlling the ball in the mixer.

The goals led Mourinho to take Eric Bailly off after just 19 minutes, replacing him with Mata, and his defensive adjustments did not end there.

Midfielder Scott McTominay, who dropped into defence after Bailly left, was taken off for Marouane Fellaini after the break, with Nemanja Matic and Chris Smalling joining a deep-lying Paul Pogba as part of a back three.

United’s attack did the defence no favours in the 50th minute, with Pogba denied by Newcastle Martin Dubravka from 25 yards despite a deflection and Matic missing the second chance, on an open net, by sending his attempt over the crossbar.

But after Mourinho made his final change in the 67th minute, sending Sanchez on for Marcus Rashford, United stormed forward.

Mata pulled one back three minutes later, chipping a free kick from 20 yards over the wall and curled it into the bottom near corner, and after a flurry of chances, including attempts by Fellaini, Chris Smalling and Pogba, it was Anthony Martial who provided the equaliser in the 76th minute.

Martial played a quick one-two with Pogba, finally controlling the ball after the midfielder’s back-heel flick and delivering a powerful right-footed strike from 12 yards that sailed past Dubravka.

And Sanchez proved the hero, scoring his first Premier League goal since March 31 by heading home in the 90th minute before United waited out five minutes of added time.

“We are going to balance each matches physically with the players but these player are prepared to play Thursday and Sunday and then we have players to make changes for some matches. But if I decide to play a someone for three matches in a week, they are available to do that.”