Match Report: Rashford to the rescue as United reach semis.

What a match at Old Trafford!! It's years since we've been pushed all the way in a huge European clash.

Anyone would be forgiven to think we'd find it easy at home against a Belgian outfit full of youngsters. In fact, the scoreline doesn't tell the full story.

You are right, we made an electric start just as everyone watching expected. Pass, pass, pass we had the most breathtaking football inside the first five minutes.

Anderlecht had not even come out of the blocks, when Carrick whipped a clever pass that Rashford controlled with a first golden touch and set up Henrikh Mkhitaryan to score his 5th goal in 5 consecutive Europa League matches.

From that point, it was men against boys as Anderlecht failed to settle into any sensible rythm.

We should have surely been 3-0 up after 20 minutes bar some special successive stops from Anderlecht keeper to deny Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard.

Sergio Romero had to be alert to deal with dangerous Anderlecht counter-attacks as the opponents defended narrow and swarmed forward on the counter with every opportunity.

The only sad thing to come at the half hour mark was seeing Marcos Rojo stretchered off with a bad looking knee injury. Fingers crossed it's just a knock, we really need him as we seriously became shaky when he left.

Two minutes later, Anderlecht scored! Yes and in bizarre fashion. Tielemanns whipped a shot from the edge of the box that deflected off Valencia and onto the crossbar but captain Sofiane Hanni remained onside to stab the lose ball past Romero.

If we really needed a wake up call, that was the perfect one! There was no choice but to repeatedly pepper the Anderlecht goal with shot after shot.

How many clear chances has Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasted this season? I'm not sure but I think we are talking about triple digits here.

Ibrahimovic's miserable night was compounded with injury.

He looked way off the pace since the moment he walked for the greetings session before kickoff.

I think it's time Rashford leads the line now and that's not because Zlatan went off injured at the end of the 90 minutes, but because I think he looks tired, he sometimes turns like a truck, sometimes he looks clueless when we are on a dangerous attack.

Back to the action, the second half was all United with Luke Shaw bursting forward in impressive fashion. Mkhitaryan was also guilty of skying several shots high into the stands as Jesse Lingard and Rashford continued to be denied by wonderful saves.

I was crying for Rooney or Martial to join the fray but the boss decided to send on Fellaini to face his former club and it was Lingard to make way after an hour.

The Anderlecht defence especially Kara was handling everything we could throw at them in the Stretford end.

One could sense an upset coming especially after we were denied a penalty when Zlatan was felled in the box and later successive offside calls were becoming frustrating as the clock ticked down.

As things stood, we were headed for extra time and extra time is what we got when it all finished square.

We had 30 more minutes to make the Europa League semis and with only one substitute remaining, Martial was sent on to add some much needed pace in attack at the expense of the injured Ibrahimovic.

We now looked dangerous with Mkhitaryan, Rashford and Martial leading the line and Pogba linking up play just behind them.

There was a moment of sheer quality when Rashford produced a rabona cross which was met by an overhead Pogba kick and had that gone in, we would have witnessed a proper goal of the season!

With just fifteen minutes away from a penalty shoot out, Rashford who was a menace all this time continued being denied and repeatedly hacked down by the Anderlecht back-line.

With 7 minutes remaining and with Sir Alex Ferguson and the Glazer family watching from the stands, it was that man Rashford again who came up with the goods.

Controlling a knockdown from Fellaini, he dummied a shot and on the turn slotted into the bottom left corner to send everyone wild.

From there on, it was routine to see the game off. There was even time for Anthony Martial to be denied a goal by the offside flag in virtually the last kick of the game.

Rashford's strike was however enough to ensure we are among the balls in today's semifinal draw at 2:00 PM where we'll find out if we'll face Lyon, Ajax or Celta Vigo who all qualified to the semis on the night.

FULL-TIME STATS

Possession: United 60%, Anderlecht 40% Shots: United 22, Anderlecht 18 Shots on target: United 10, Anderlecht 6 Corners: United 12, Anderlecht 6