Marcus Rashford hailed Manchester United’s excellent ‘team performance’ in their comprehensive 5-0 victory over Leipzig and said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer instructed him to try and ‘up the tempo’ in attack before he came on to score a stunning hat-trick.
The forward has been making waves both on and off the pitch in recent weeks but started on the bench on Wednesday night as Solskjaer made five changes to the side that drew with Chelsea at the weekend.
Mason Greenwood scored with his first ever shot in the Champions League midway through the first half at Old Trafford but it was Rashford who stole the headlines once again and went home with the match ball.
The England international netted three goals in just 18 minutes – his first ever hat-trick in professional football – to put the game out of sight, with Anthony Martial also getting on the scoresheet from the penalty spot at the Theatre of Dreams.
‘The manager told us when we came on to try and up the tempo,’ Rashford told BT Sport shortly after the final whistle.
‘That for us means going forward. There was definitely spaces there.
‘We got Bruno and Paul on the ball, Anto running forward and we looked dangerous throughout and that we could score every time we went forward.’
Rashford added: ‘It was a real team performance.
‘The ones who started did well and the substitutes did well too.
‘We can’t ask for much more than that in terms of the attitude and the intent to go and kill the game off. It worked in our favour.’
‘He needs to keep his head down and keep working hard.
‘He will be an unbelievable player for us.’
