Huddersfield 0 Manchester United 2: Ruthless Romelu Lukaku scores twice to send Red Devils into last eight of the FA Cup after VAR comically rules out Juan Mata strike

A BRILLIANT BRACE from Romelu Lukaku fired Manchester United into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Jose Mourinho’s side simply had too much for Huddersfield in the John Smith’s Stadium and in Belgian striker Lukaku the stand out player of the day.

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Some members of the jury may still be out on the £75million signing from Everton last summer.

On days like this it is clear why the Red Devils spent the big bucks on him to fill the goals gap left by Wayne Rooney’s departure and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s injury absence.

That is 20 for the season now for Lukaku and three in as many games having also scored in the league game at Old Trafford against today’s opponent’s a fortnight ago.

It took only three minutes for him to notch up the first of the game and silence a vociferous home crowd.

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Juan Mata provided the through ball and after turning Christopher Schindler, Lukaku turned a shot into the near bottom corner.

It was a brilliant finish having looked like he was shaping for a shot across goalkeeper Jonas Lossl who ended up wrong footed.

The Terriers had a good shout for a penalty shortly afterwards when Chris Smalling did handle in the box but it was deemed not intentional.

Then just before the break United thought they had a second.

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As ever with VAR present it became the talking point. Wasn’t the idea for there to be less discussion because of it?

It took a number of views to decide part of Juan Mata’s arm was just offside when he received a pass from Ashley Young and turned the ball in.

But there was no argument about the visitors second in the 55th minute.

Lukaku fed the ball to Alexis Sanchez and then took off for the return out pacing two Town defenders before slotting the ball home.

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There was no coming back from that for David Wagner’s men. There would be no wild celebrations like they had enjoyed here back in October in beating United 2-1 in the league.

This was a job well and truly done by Mourinho’s men.

INTERACTIVE STATS – CLICK on a player’s number below to see their stats

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