Ighalo relieved for Red Devils to progress in Carabao Cup against a 'tough' Luton side

Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo praised the defensive efforts of opponents Luton Town in the Red Devils' 3-0 Carabao Cup triumph at Kenilworth Road last night.

Although the scoreline makes it look like a comfortable win for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side, if was anything but, the visitors needing late goals from Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood to finally kill off the Hatters.

Ighalo, on loan from Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua, was well marshalled by both Sonny Bradley and Tom Lockyer during his 78 minutes on the pitch, unable to get off the mark for the season.

Speaking afterwards, he said: “It was a very tough game.

"We knew, from the start, that we were coming to play a tough side.

"We are happy we are going through to the next round - that is the most important thing.

“They defended very well. They know, if they give us the chance, that we're going to score goals, so I thought they defended very well.

"Towards the end, we got the goals.

“I think that (penalty by Juan Mata) was the turning point, because when we started the game, we were pushing, pushing, and the goal didn't come.

"Fortunately we had that penalty and we got the goal, so it makes the team even more confident.”

Luton might have made for a nervy final 10 minutes had Tom Lockyer's header beaten keeper Dean Henderson or his follow-up gone in rather than cleared off the line by Eric Bailly.

Ighalo added: "He's a good goalkeeper and he made that save and gave us the confidence to keep pushing,

"Like the gaffer said, we have to score more goals to finish the game, because 1-0 is never a (guaranteed) win, so that's why we were pushing to get more goals.

"You see when Mason came in, and Rashford, you see that we had more speed up there, because they were a bit tired back there.

"So the goals came in and we are very happy we are through to the next round.”