I was lucky not to be shown red card against Leicester City – Mata

Manchester United midfielder, Juan Mata, has admitted he was “a bit lucky” not to be sent off for a challenge on Jamie Vardy, during their 3-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday.


Mata caught Vardy with a late lunge in the first half, but was only shown a yellow card by referee Anthony Taylor.

The Spain international went on to score United’s third goal, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic also getting on the scoresheet.

“I was late, I tried to reach the ball, I didn’t want to hurt Jamie,” Mata explained to Sky Sports.

“Probably I was a bit lucky but I just wanted to get the ball because I lost it 10 seconds before.”

He continued: “I think the performance was quite good. Even before scoring the first goal I think we were trying to control the game through passes and trying to have the ball.

“Mkhi’s was an incredible goal and after that we played very good and could have scored twice more. We’re very happy because today we took our chances.

“It was very important for Mkhi and me to score because Zlatan is scoring a lot but we need goals from us as well.”