The game started with both sides looking for an early goal, United particularly knew an early goal would calm any pre match jitters following their defeat in the Europa League Thursday night. But it was Watford who came closest to scoring in the early exchanges after Prödl's back post header was nearly turned in by Deeney who was sliding in. Then a golden chance fell for the Golden Boys, David De Gea dropped a high ball after miscommunication with Chris Smalling leaving a tap in for Ighalo... somehow he missed. An empty net, a gift that wasn't taken many could have been critical to say that was Watfords chance gone but Mazzari's men are made of sterner stuff and weren't going to let that chance effect them. De Gea made up for his earlier mistake a few minutes later when he tipped away a powerful Deeney header, up the other end 89 million pound man Paul Pogba cracked the bar from distance, it was most certainly a warning for The Hornets.
Minutes later the opening goal came and it was the hosts, Britos stole the ball off Martial and slid it through to Janmaat who cut it back for who else but the best French midfielder on the pitch Etienne Capoue who slammed it past De Gea into the Vicarage Road end net. The goal sent The Vic into raptures but there was still work to be done to consolidate the lead before half time you could see Walter knew that through his muted celebration of the opener. Despite some relaxed passing that led to United chances, Watford saw the half out going in 1-0 up at the break. The words "good half" would be a huge understatement.
The second half saw a drop in tempo as United tried to break through to level the game. Despite the obvious pressure from the visitors we still looked comfortable without making too many clear cut chances. In typical fashion with one of the Red Devils only chances in the early parts of the second half, Rashford tapped home after a deflection fell to him. Many, myself included thought we were going to crumble at this point and the game would fall the way of Zlatan and co. How wrong was I!
Someone who I haven't mentioned yet provided the pivotal moment in the match, a ball crossed in found Zlatan Ibrahimovic who powered a header towards goal, Gomes dived across and got a hand on it to tip it away and keep the scores level. That was the wake up call we needed and fresh legs were due in a tiring hornets team, I thought the game was crying out for Success but Mazzari chose Zuniga, today I realised its a good job I'm not the manager.
Zuniga came on and took a free kick and ghosted into the box to slam Pereyra's cutback into the Rookery End net sending the stadium wild with some of the most exuberant celebrations I've seen at a home game in a long time. Now we just needed to hold on, but this is Watford the team who love to concede a late goal. Good job we have a leader like Troy Deeney in our side who proved why is he worth every penny of that rejected transfer fee, he hustled Manchester United all game and they couldn't handle it. Deeney held the ball in the corner for two minutes and the game was all but up.
United sent one last ball forward that was instantly returned up field finding Success who ran past two, slid the ball to Zuniga who was brought down by Fellaini... penalty!!!
Deeney smashed the penalty home with the last kick of the game to seal a famous afternoon for The Hornets. 6 years ago on this very day we beat Millwall 6-1 something then we thought would stay as one of our great days but now we get to play and beat teams like Manchester United... What a time to be a Watford fan who knew in 2010 that we'd be a Premier League team with a side full of international stars, I certainly didn't.
I bloody love you Watford! You 'Orns!
Watford 3-1 Manchester United (Attendence: 21,118) yes 21,000 at Vicarage Road who would've thought it.
Capoue vs Pogba- 4 goals to nil so far! Yes this is going to continue all season!
Man Of The Match: Prödl- was absolutely quality his best performance in yellow to date, he firmly placed Zlatan in his back pocket.
Match rating- 9/10- we conceded and as a Watford fan we have to find some sort of negative... even today!
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