Chris Smalling: Martial goal has lifted Man United spirits for ‘massive’ week
Sunday looked set to be one of the low points in a troubled campaign as Dimitri Payet’s exceptional free-kick put West Ham on course for Wembley.
However, the improved attitude and aptitude displayed by Louis van Gaal’s men helped secure a 1-1 draw, with Anthony Martial’s effort from an acute angle securing a quarter-final replay.
Smalling knows United were far from their best at Old Trafford but was proud of their response to back-to-back defeats and falling behind, even going so far as to say Sunday was a “missed opportunity”.
They now turn their attention on overturning a two-goal deficit in the Europa League against Liverpool on Thursday, before Sunday’s trip to near neighbours Manchester City.
“I think it did (lift us),” Smalling said of Martial’s leveller.
“To go 1-0 down and obviously everything is against you with previous results, then to show some fighting character and really push for the winner at the end I think hopefully does boost us.
“We have got massive games now and obviously it is another game with the replay as well, so we’ve still got a lot of games to play for.”
First up is the home clash with Liverpool — a last-16 tie Smalling knows United face a “difficult job” in.
Only David de Gea’s brilliance prevented it being more than a 2-0 loss in the first leg and Jurgen Klopp’s men make the short trip to Old Trafford in the knowledge that an early away goal could kill the tie.
“It’s not impossible and I think we need to play how we did in that second half and start the game (well),” Smalling said.
“We talk a lot about how to start the game and starting it strong, and more often than not we’ve started the game quite strongly. “[On Sunday] we didn’t but we grew as the game went on and the second half we were a lot better.”
The way the West Ham match ended has certainly boosted the defender’s confidence of overturning the two-goal deficit on Thursday.
“I think it helped that we had such a big game to play for because everyone can see the Wembley finish line. We just got our heads around this very quick and now we turn our attention back to Liverpool.
“We looked at the videos, but only in our normal way. The two days we had to turn our attention to this meant we didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on a lot of mistakes.
Smalling certainly suggests Sunday’s quarter-final has put them in the right frame of mind for this week’s Liverpool and City matches.
“We’ve got two massive games now and, more often than not, we turn up in those big games,” he said.
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