BLACKBURN, England -- Manchester United are becoming accustomed to winning without Wayne Rooney, so much so that his absence from Sunday's FA Cup fifth round victory against Blackburn Rovers passed without the merest hint of angst over the their captain's injury-enforced absence at Ewood Park. Marcus Rashford's first-half goal, which cancelled out Danny Graham's opener for the home team, preceded Zlatan Ibrahimovic's second-half winner, a goal that spared Jose Mourinho and his players an unwanted Old Trafford replay on Mar. 1 and earned a quarterfinal trip to Chelsea.
While Rooney may be United's all-time record goalscorer, the fact this game was won with a goal from a star of the future, Rashford, and Ibrahimovic, undoubtedly the club's man of the moment, emphasised that Rooney's heroics over the past 12 years are now in danger of being consigned to history by the evolution of Mourinho's team.