Gary Linekar has heaped plaudits on Odion Ighalo following the Nigerian forward’s sublime goal in Manchester United’s 5-0 Europa League win against Austrian club, LASK on Thursday night.
Ighalo had opened the scoring in United’s 5-0 win at LASK on Thursday night with a marvellous effort.
The Nigerian juggled the ball neatly outside the area before ushering it into his stride and hitting a brilliant left foot drive past the goalkeeper.
The 30-year-old has now netted four goals in eight appearances for the Red Devils since his lion move from China and is looking like the real deal.
Because of coronavirus fears the game in Austria was played behind closed doors meaning fans were not able to witness his strike.
Former United midfielder Ince saw this as grounds to imply that Ighalo would not have scored that goal had there been a crowd watching him.
“Here he juggles it three times and fires it into the top corner,” Ince said at half-time on BT Sport.
“It reminds me of one of those that you would do at training. If it was a full house, I don’t know if I am doing a disservice to him, I don’t know.
“It is a wonderful goal, let me tell you that. A wonderful strike. That is something you would try in training.”
Ince was obviously implying that the pressure was off Ighalo without any fans watching.
With BT Sport showing the game live, however, there were still millions watching from afar, and Ince’s comments were met with some trepidation on social media.
While it was not clear if Lineker was responding directly to Ince’s comments about the goal or not, he offered a differing view.
“Just saw Ighalo’s goal. Sensational. Deserved a crowd,” he wrote on social media soon after.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will have been happy to have got the game played before all top level football around Europe was postponed.
Coronavirus fears has led to the vast majority of top level sport on the continent being postponed until further notice.
