Man Utd 2 Crystal Palace 0

Paul Pogba

Man­chester Uni­ted 2 Crys­tal Pal­ace 0, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, May 21, 2017. Sixth pla­ced Man­chester Uni­ted com­fort­ably de­feated mid-ta­ble Crys­tal Pal­ace by 2-0 in their fi­nal Pre­miership fix­ture of the 2016-17 cam­paign. For­mer Eng­land U20 in­ter­na­tion­al Josh Har­rop opened the scor­ing for Uni­ted in the 15th min­ute of the tie be­fore mid­field play­maker Paul Po­gba hit a sec­ond goal for the hosts four min­utes la­ter in the fir­st period.

Con­tro­ver­sial Por­tuguese man­ager Jose Mou­rinho had sig­ned a highly luc­rat­ive three-year con­tract wi­th Man­chester Uni­ted Foot­ball Club on the 27th of May 2016, wi­th an op­tion to stay at Old Traf­ford un­til at least the end of the 2019-20 sea­son. Fol­low­ing a nar­row 2-1 FA Com­munity Shield tri­umph ag­ainst reign­ing Pre­miership Cham­pi­ons Lei­cester City at Wemb­ley, The Reds star­ted the 2016-17 Pre­mier Lea­gue cam­paign wi­th three wins over AFC Bourne­mouth, South­ampton, and Hull City be­fore suf­fer­ing a pain­ful 2-1 de­feat at the hands of neigh­bouring rivals Man­chester City at Old Traf­ford. Af­ter los­ing 4-0 ag­ainst Mourinho´s for­mer em­ploy­ers Chel­sea at Stam­ford Bridge in their ninth mat­ch of the term, Man­chester Uni­ted went on a 25 ga­me un­defeated Pre­miership streak which ended wi­th a 2-0 loss ag­ainst Ar­sene Wenger´s Ar­senal at Emir­ates Sta­dium. Uni­ted then lost 2-1 to sec­ond pla­ced Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur at White Hart Lane be­fore they drew 0-0 wi­th South­ampton at St Mary´s Sta­dium in their pen­ul­tim­ate top-flight fix­ture of the season.

Man­chester Uni­ted roun­ded off the 2016-17 Pre­mier Lea­gue term by over­com­ing Crys­tal Pal­ace 2-0 at Old Traf­ford. In what was Josh Harrop´s Pre­miership de­but for Uni­ted, Jose Mou­rinho fielded the club´s young­est ever start­ing line-up in the his­tory of the Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, wi­th an av­er­age age of 22 years and 284 days. And it was Har­rop who sco­red the fir­st goal of the con­test when the mid­field pro­spect be­at Crys­tal Pal­ace and Wales net­mind­er Way­ne Hen­nessey wi­th a dev­ast­at­ing shot from in­side the 18-yard area af­ter fif­teen min­utes of play. Then, just a few mo­ments la­ter, Man­chester Uni­ted doubled their lead as Paul Po­gba re­ceived a bril­liant pass from Jesse Lin­gard to put the ball be­tween the legs of Hen­nessey and in­to the net in the 19th min­ute of the clash. Mou­rinho made two sub­sti­tu­tions shortly be­fore the break when Mi­chael Car­rick was bro­ught on for Po­gba and An­thony Mar­tial re­placed Lin­gard, and bo­th of the sub­stitutes had a reas­on­ably de­cent sec­ond pe­riod. And wi­th five min­utes left on the watch, An­gel Go­mes be­came the young­est Man­chester Uni­ted de­butant since Duncan Ed­wards as the 16-year-old mid­fielder took the field as a late re­place­ment for vet­er­an stri­ker Way­ne Roo­ney, but there was too little time for him to make an im­pact. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Joel Pe­reira, Eric Bailly, Axel Tu­an­zebe, Tim Fosu-Mensah, Phil Jones, De­metri Mit­chell, Joshua Har­rop, Jesse Lin­gard, Paul Po­gba, Scott Mc­Tom­inay, Way­ne Roo­ney. Sub­stitutes: Kier­an O’Hara, Da­ley Bli­nd, Mi­chael Car­rick, Zachary Dearn­ley, An­gel Go­mes, Matty Wil­lock, An­thony Mar­tial. Crys­tal Pal­ace Te­am: Way­ne Hen­nessey, Mar­tin Kel­ly, Ja­mes Tomkins, Patrick Van Aan­holt, Joel Wa­rd, Jef­frey Sch­lupp, Ja­mes McAr­thur, Luka Milivo­jevic, Ja­son Puncheon, Wil­fried Za­ha, Chris­ti­an Ben­teke. Sub­stitutes: Ju­li­an Sp­er­oni, Sul­lay Kaikai, Scott Dann, Aar­on Wan-Bis­saka, Chung-yong Lee, Bakary Sako, Fra­izer Campbell.

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