Manchester United dropped points for the first
time this season as Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s double helped Stoke City
to a 2-2 draw.
Eric
Maxim Choupo-Moting’s double secured Stoke City a battling 2-2 draw at
home to a wasteful Manchester United side that dropped points for the
first time this season.
Jose Mourinho’s men
attracted plenty of admirers for their impressive start to the campaign,
but they were not at their best in front of goal and Choupo-Moting
inspired Stoke to a commendable point at the bet365 Stadium
An
entertaining first half saw both sides look a danger going forward,
with United in particular guilty of wasting numerous chances to take the
lead.
Eventually Stoke found the breakthrough
in the 43rd minute through Choupo-Moting, but that only seemed to jolt
United into life, as they restored parity shortly after in fortuitous
circumstances when a Paul Pogba header deflected in off Marcus Rashford.
Romelu
Lukaku put United ahead for the first time just before the hour, but
like with Stoke’s opener, an equaliser followed soon after as
Choupo-Moting doubled his tally.
United looked the more likely to steal a late winner, but Stoke defended valiantly and kept United’s frontline at bay.
Stoke
started the brighter of the teams and threatened twice in the opening
10 minutes, with Choupo-Moting and Jese Rodriguez both getting in behind
the defence and going close.
United soon woke
up and troubled their opposition in a similar fashion, as Lukaku latched
on to Rashford’s pass and crossed towards Pogba, whose back-heeled
effort was deflected behind.
The home side
struggled to deal with the lively Rashford and he went close twice in
quick succession just before the half-hour mark.
His
first opportunity saw the forward race on to a through ball and test
Jack Butland from 16 yards, before forcing an even better stop from the
goalkeeper with a controlled effort which looked destined for the
bottom-right corner.
Stoke took
full advantage of those let-offs late in the half – Choupo-Moting
slamming in from close range after a fine Mame Biram Diouf cross.
Their
joy was short-lived, though, as United levelled a few moments later as
Pogba’s header hit an oblivious Rashford following a Henrikh Mkhitaryan
corner and found the net.
United completed the
turnaround in the 57th minute and Mkhitaryan was at the centre of things
again, slicing open the Stoke defence with an intricate pass for
Lukaku, who found the net at the second time of asking after Butland
saved his first effort.
But Stoke were level again shortly after.
David
De Gea made a remarkable save to deny Jese initially, but from the
resulting corner he was rendered helpless, as Choupo-Moting headed in at
the back post after shaking off Phil Jones’ weak challenge.
There was still time for United to almost snatch it with two late chances.
The
first fell to Lukaku, who inexplicably turned Antonio Valencia’s cross
over from eight yards with nine minutes left, before Butland heroically
got down to prevent Kurt Zouma from scoring an own goal deep into
stoppage time.
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