Mata: I was a bit lucky to stay on the pitch
Date published: Sunday 5th February 2017 7:35
Juan Mata counts himself “a bit lucky” to get away with a yellow card for a challenge during Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over Leicester City on Sunday.
The Spaniard made a late tackle on Foxes’ striker Jamie Vardy in the first-half at 0-0 before going on to score United’s third goal.
“I was late. I tried to reach the ball. I didn’t want to hurt him. I was probably a bit lucky there,” Mata told Sky Sports.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored two goals late in the first period before Mata added another before the end.
“The first was an incredible goal and after we played very good and scored twice more,” Mata added. “We are happy today because today we took the chances.”
Mkhitaryan hailed their flexibility against Claudio Ranieri’s side and was pleased that they could grab a few goals.
“We prepared before the game that if it doesn’t work with two strikers to change formation and that is what we did,” Mkhitaryan said.
“It was not something new for us. In many games we have changed easily. We did good after the (formation) change. We have been trying to have more chances and to score more and it worked.”
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