Man Utd player ratings gallery - Four score 8/10 & five get 7/10 in 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest

Manchester United beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.

Manchester United progressed to the Carabao Cup final on Wednesday night, beating Nottingham Forest 2-0 in the second leg of their semi-final clash. The score gave the Red Devils a 5-0 aggregate win following last week’s victory at the City Ground.

Second-half goals from Anthony Martial and Fred ensured United grabbed a comfortable win at home, while Jadon Sancho made his return to the team, playing for the first time since late October.

It was a low-key start at Old Trafford, with neither side over-committing in attack. It took until 18 minutes for a shot of note, when Antony’s curled shot was held, while Casemiro also saw a good header kept out by the feet of Wayne Hennessey.

Antony went close again with a strike from the edge of the box while Wout Weghorst’s header struck the post just as the officials announced one minute of first-half injury-time. But it wasn’t all one-way traffic, and Forest went close via Brennan Johnson, who broke through the United defence and then shot right at Tom Heaton.

Emmanuel Dennis had arguably the best chance of the first half when his goal-bound shot looked set to hit the back of the net, only for it to be blocked, virtually on the line, by Forest’s Sam Surridge.

But it was United who came out stronger after the break, with Alejandro Garnacho’s shot inside the box saved by Hennessey, before Casemiro headed wide from a corner for the second time on the night.

Substitute Marcus Rashford saw his effort blocked in the box after he was introduced, while Hennessey was again called into action, this time to deny Casemiro’s shot after some good interplay at the edge of the box.

And on 73 minutes, the hosts made their second-half dominance pay. Casemiro’s pass set up a 3v2 breakaway in United’s favour, with Martial slipping the ball to Rashford. His strike bounced back off Scott McKenna and landed perfectly for Martial to stroke home.

Almost immediately it was 2-0, with Fred tapping into an open goal after Rashford centred the ball to United’s no.17 from just a few yards out, with the final touch coming off Fred’s knee.

Heaton was forced into a rare save when Danilo shot from distance soon after, before Surridge fired the rebound over in a quiet end. Fernandes had the game’s final chance of note when he shot wide from a narrow angle. Here’s how we rated the players…

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