Manchester United looked very sharp and yet delivered a very relaxed game following their four-day training sessions in Qatar during last week, as the Red Devils hosted Fulham for the FA Cup 4th round, and emerged as 4-1 winners, as Fulham slumped completely, but managed to get one back for the honor in the last quarter of the second half.
United took an early lead on the 3rd minute as Giggs converted a penalty following a handball from Hughes. United were not really troubled as Giggs gave a glimpse of his old form in the first half with some speedy runs and good crossings. 1-0 at half time, Fulham were still in the game then, but five minutes after restarting play, Rooney finally managed to score after having a couple of chances saved in the first half, and 2 minutes later, Chicharito, who had a quiet game so far, pounced to finish off Rooney’s low cross which took a slight deflection off Nani as the latter was pushed to ground by a defender. Chicharito scored again on the 66th minute as his shot took a deflection off Hughes and past Schwarzer. All these goals scored with RvP watching from the bench, as the scoreline definitely hinted that he would have a night off. However, Fulham managed to get one back on the 77th minute, as Hughes rose unmarked to head home a corner on the near post, a position which is normally covered by RvP when he plays, but this time De Gea did not assign anyone to this task, and paid the price. Seems like keeping cleansheets these days for United is a headache, as De Gea did not have anything to do till that goal went in. United looked to press for another goal as Kagawa went close and Rooney had one chalked off for an initial foul by Chicharito before the ball came to him, but in the end it remained four goals scored for the homeside, with one for the visitors, and a qualification booked for the next round of the FA Cup.
[...] again as Riether had a shot in which fortunately did not do any damage as United looked frustrated, they who had enjoyed a rather calm game only 7 days ago against the same opponents. Chicharito, then had a great chance to score, but completely missed the ball in an attempt to [...]