LOUIS VAN GAAL HAILS TEENAGE SENSATION RASHFORD AS UNITED BEAT WEST HAM AND REACH FA CUP SEMI FINAL

WEST HAM UNITED 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 2

BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT UPTON PARK

Manchester United’s manager, Louis Van Gaal has paid tribute to 18-year old Marcus Rashford, who scored the opening goal of their FA Cup Quarter final replay win against West Ham, which saw them advance to the Semi final of the FA Cup for the first time in 5 years.

He said: “It was a great goal. I was behind him on the bench. I saw the great gap and I was shouting shoot! It was a great goal with a fantastic dribble. He has that quality and he can score a lot of goals.”

On the result he said: “I am very happy in spite of the 3-0 defeat against Tottenham. We had the right spirit. My team has a lot of fighting spirit.”

When he was asked how he keeps bouncing back from set backs and whether it answered the critics he said: “A lot of things have been changed here, that is why I am here, I am selected by Manchester United and not because I am a lousy trainer.”

Back to Rashford he said: “He is a player who is focused on his work and I admire him. When you are so young and there is so much attention now because he is scoring so many goals and important goals and you can focus on the next match, and then you have criticism. He can cope with criticism also. He will say yes manager you are right and I have to do this and that. There are not a lot of players who can see their self image in a match.”

When asked if he was ready to play for England, Van Gaal said: “It is not my job.”

On Marouane Fellaini who got the other goal he said:” He is always doing what we are asking. He has certain qualities just like Andy Carroll, I like that and not many clubs have that quality. That is why he is invited for the Belgian national team because he has that quality.

The West Ham Manager Slaven Bilic also complimented Rashford. He said: “ He scored in the derby against Manchester City. He scored a brilliant goal tonight. He had lot to do. He controlled the ball, he did not give the defender any chance to attack him, slow him down or get help from others and the finish was magnificent.”

On the game he said: “They were better than us for two-thirds of the game. The quality of our passing was not the best. They kept the ball and passed it well.  We were lacking that extra freshness. Maybe the game on Saturday took a bit out of us but they played on Sunday. They were covering big parts of the pitch better than us. They kept possession tonight and it proved very costly.”

Manchester United will face Everton at Wembley in the Semi Final on April 23.