Manchester United suffered a minor setback in their bid to obtain silverware this year after being held to a goalless draw at the Abbey Stadium earlier this evening.
The peculiar start time of 19.55 reflected the first half as Cambridge United came closest to breaking the deadlock from a corner – the best of many chances squandered by the hosts. David De Gea, a Real Madrid target, saved the back four’s blushes as he was forced into making multiple saves as a result of their laxity, continually exploited by Man of the Match winner Ryan Donaldson who made use of his quick feet to cause a nuisance throughout the first half.
As the game went on the Red Devils enjoyed large portions of possession and came close through Radamel Falcao and substitute Robin Van Persie, only to be denied by the superb Chris Dunn who also managed to help deny the visitors an injury time winner with a last ditch lunge for a long range effort into a chaotic box.
Angel Di Maria made little impact in his preferred deeper role, as opposed to the striking role van Gaal has recently appointed for him in the Premier League, but a pin point pass early in the first half expertly found Falcao through on goal, only for his poor attempt to be blocked.
The U’s looked sharp from set pieces – experimenting with multiple training ground routines – but the makeshift, United backline had very little to deal with throughout the majority of the game as the Cambridge midfield turned their attention to securing a replay at Old Trafford.
The sold out Abbey Stadium (7,987) witnessed the lowest ranked team remaining in the cup reignite the magic that has been missing to some extent this year but their gutsy performance certainly merited a second stab at progressing into the Fifth Round as van Gaal will look for a reaction from his players as they host Leicester City on 31st January.
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