Lukaku celebrates United’s opener in Moscow
Romelu Lukaku scored twice as a dominant Manchester United won 4-1 at CSKA Moscow in the Champions League group stage on Wednesday.
Lukaku claimed his ninth and 10th goals of the season for United with a header and a close-range finish either side of Anthony Martial’s penalty as United went into the break 3-0 up.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan made it 4-0 after the break with a rebounded effort, and if it wasn’t for home goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev making a string of saves, it could have ended much worst for CSKA, who grabbed a late consolation through 19-year-old substitute Konstantin Kuchaev.
The result means United are three points clear at the top of Group A with two games gone, and are still unbeaten in all competitions this season.
It was one-way traffic throughout as United dominated, going ahead on four minutes through Lukaku, who outmuscled his marker to head Martial’s left-wing cross into the bottom corner.
Alan Dzagoev forced David de Gea into a low save minutes later, before Akinfeev stopped Mkhitaryan’s low effort, but United were 2-0 up on 19 minutes.
After Georgi Schennikov needlessly brought down Mkhitaryan on the right of the box, Martial stepped up and found the bottom right corner from the spot.
And it was 3-0 after just 27 minutes, as Lukaku arrived at the back post from Martial’s cross after Vasili Berezutski had missed his clearance.
Akinfeev was busy in the CSKA net, beating away Lukaku’s volley just after the break, but despite parrying Martial’s shot when one-on-one shortly after, the Russian stopper’s save fell into the path of Mkhitaryan to clean up from close range on 57 minutes.
Substitute Jesse Lingard should have made it five just 15 seconds after he came on, but Akinfeev again stopped his low shot from 12 yards.
CSKA grabbed a consolation in the 90th minute as Kuchaev’s smart finish went through De Gea’s legs.
