Solskjaer will be happy with his side’s reaction to their last two home results and they’ve looked dangerous going forward, so he’ll be hoping for more of the same after the break. As for Fulham, they’ve had a couple of good chances, but their sloppiness at the back could’ve cost them a lot more. Parker will want to see a big improvement at the back in the second half.
Cavani’s brilliant long-range strike gives United a 1-0 lead over Fulham at half-time. The hosts dominated the first half and took the lead 15 minutes in after Cavani latched onto De Gea’s clearance. He spotted Areola off his line and chipped his effort from about 40 yards out. Fernandes also saw an effort pushed away by Areola, while Carvalho and Anguissa were both denied by De Gea at the other end.
45′ + 3′ HALF-TIME: MANCHESTER UNITED 1-0 FULHAM.
45′ + 2′ Another poor pass from Lemina is played straight to Shaw and he drives forward. The space open up ahead of him and despite being a long way out, he has a go. He slices at it though and his shot is always swerving away from the near post.
45′ + 1′ Fulham break quickly on the counter and Adarabioyo gets away from Fernandes before switching play out to De Cordova-Reid on the right. He curls a good cross into the middle of the box, but McTominay is back to head it clear.
44′ Fulham are still being penned back deep in their own half, and there’s just no way out for the visitors at the moment. Ream intercepts Pogba’s pass before sloppily giving it away again, but Wan-Bissaka’s cross is blocked by Bryan.
42′ Bryan is back on the field to help Fulham defend the corner they’ve just conceded and it’s cleared at the near post by Ream. Lookman’s heavy touch gifts the ball to Fernandes, but his first-time shot is held onto by Areola at the far post.
40′ Greenwood tries to hold off Bryan and ends up elbowing the left-back in the nose. He’s bleeding so the referee pauses the game so he can get some treatment, but it looks like he’ll be able to carry on when he gets patched up.
38′ SAVE! Carvalho peels off the back of Lindelof and the United defender is the last man, so he can’t foul him. Carvalho drives into the box and hits a low shot across goal, but it’s a comfortable one for De Gea to hold onto.
36′ It’s better from Fulham now as Carvalho and Lookman link up well down the left. Carvalho gets the better of Wan-Bissaka and drills a low cross into the box, but Lindelof’s block takes the power off it and De Gea collects.
34′ It’s another loose pass out from the back from Adarabioyo as Cavani intercepts the ball on the edge of the box. Fortunately for the defender, his first touch is a heavy one and it rolls straight into Areola’s gloves.
32′ Reed’s game is over as he slowly makes his way onto the bench and Andersen is on to replace him.
31′ Reed has gone down for Fulham and he’s signalled to the bench that he can’t carry on. It looks to be a muscle problem and the medical team come on to see him, but he goes straight off the field with them.
30′ CHANCE! Cavaleiro swings the corner into the box for Fulham and Anguissa pulls away from Fred on the edge of the six-yard box to flick on his header. De Gea gets behind it, but spills the shot and is fortunate that none of the Fulham players followed it in.
28′ It’s Reed that tries to play out from the back this time and his pass is intercepted by McTominay. He threads it through for Wan-Bissaka, who lays it off to Fernandes in the middle, but he can’t sort out his feet quick enough to have a shot.
26′ GOOD SAVE! It’s a loose pass out from the back by Lemina and Cavani is there to intercept it. He squares it to Fernandes on the edge of the box and he lets it run across him before hitting the shot across goal and Areola gets a strong hand to it to push it away.
24′ Cavani is only the third United player to reach 10+ goals in a single Premier League season while aged 33 or over at the start of that campaign, after Teddy Sheringham in 2000-01 and Zlatan Ibrahimovic 2016-17.
22′ Fulham are trying to close United down high up the field and force them into mistakes at the back. Shaw takes too long to clear his lines so Carvalho gets tight to him, but ends up fouling the left-back when he nicks the ball.
20′ GREENWOOD! Wan-Bissaka finds himself in a lot of space on the right again and he curls another good cross into the box. Greenwood stoops to meet it at the near post, but can’t flick it on target and his effort lands in the roof of the net.
Bruno Fernandes
Yellow Card
18′ Fernandes is shown the first yellow card of the game after clipping the back of Lookman’s heels when trying to stop the counter-attack.
17′ Fulham are on the back foot again as United push forward in search of a second goal. Wan-Bissaka switches play out to Pogba on the left this time, but his cross is put out for a corner by Carvalho.
15′ CAVANI SCORES! De Gea’s clearance goes straight to Cavani and he latches onto the ball just inside Fulham’s half. The defenders aren’t anywhere near him and he takes the shot early after spotting Areola off his line. He chips it over Areola and into the back of the net. 1-0 United!
15′ De Gea fizzed his clearance out when he was closed down by Lookman. Initially, it looked like Fernandes got a flick on it, but it ran straight through to Cavani.
14′ Wan-Bissaka gets ahead of Bryan again and fizzes another low cross into the six-yard box. Cavani goes to ground and he’s asking for a penalty, claiming he was being held by Ream, but the referee points for a corner.
12′ Greenwood is brought down by Reed on the right and wins a free-kick in a good position. Shaw leaves it for Fernandes to take, but his cross is headed away by Adarabioyo in the middle of the box.
10′ Lindelof gets his head up before playing a long ball over the top to Fernandes, who curved his run to stay onside. There’s too much on it for the midfielder though and Areola comes off his line to collect it.
8′ Pogba plays a lovely throughball to the edge of the box and it looks like Cavani has the better of Adarabioyo to get in on goal. The defender does well though and he manages to stretch and poke it away from the forward.
6′ CHANCE! Wan-Bissaka finds himself with space to run into down the right and he pulls back to swing in a deep cross. Pogba runs onto it at the far post but gets caught under it and his header loops over the bar.
5′ De Cordova-Reid nicks the ball off McTominay high up the field before touching it onto Anguissa ahead of him. He fizzes a dangerous low cross into the box which Carvalho can’t reach at the near post and Shaw hooks it clear.
4′ The hosts are still on the ball here and Wan-Bissaka makes a great run down the right before cutting inside. He tries to lay it off to Fernandes on the edge of the box, but it’s cut out by Lemina.
2′ United are dominating possession in the opening minutes here, but Fred is put under pressure when he drops back to get it from Shaw. Anguissa gets tight to him and does enough to win Fulham a throw-in.
1′ Fernandes gets the game underway for United!
The teams are out on the pitch now, with kick-off just moments away.
United have won 18 of their last 22 Premier League meetings with Fulham (D2 L2), and are unbeaten in their last 12 against them in the competition (W10 D2).
Scott Parker makes four changes to his team after their loss to Southampton on Saturday as he brings Ream, Bryan, Lemina and Lookman into the starting line-up. Andersen, Tete, Aina and Onomah start on the bench.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer makes just three changes to the side that lost to Liverpool last time out. De Gea starts in goal, with Tuanzebe and Greenwood also coming in. Henderson, Bailly and Rashford drop to the bench.
FULHAM SUBS: Michael Hector, Marek Rodak, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ola Aina, Joachim Andersen, Kenny Tete, Josh Maja, Denis Odoi, Josh Onomah.
FULHAM STARTING XI (3-4-2-1): Alphonse Areola; Tim Ream, Tosin Adarabioyo, Joe Bryan; Fabio Carvalho, Harrison Reed, Mario Lemina, Bobby De Cordova-Reid; Ademola Lookman, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa; Ivan Cavaleiro.
MANCHESTER UNITED SUBS: Alex Telles, Amad Diallo, Donny van de Beek, Juan Mata, Dean Henderson, Marcus Rashford, Brandon Williams, Nemanja Matic, Eric Bailly.
MANCHESTER UNITED STARTING XI (4-2-3-1): David de Gea; Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof, Axel Tuanzebe, Luke Shaw; Scott McTominay, Fred; Mason Greenwood, Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba; Edinson Cavani.
United are looking to try and secure their second-place finish in the Premier League before the end of the season and can do that with a win today. They’ve lost their previous two matches against Leicester City and Liverpool though, with both defeats coming at Old Trafford. Fulham’s relegation has already been confirmed and they’re on an eight-match winless run in the league (D1 L7), with their last win coming against Liverpool at the start of March.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Premier League meeting between Manchester United and Fulham at Old Trafford!
