United coach hails star duo

Cape Town - Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal hailed the match-winning performances of Angel Di Maria and David de Gea in the 2-1 triumph over Everton on Sunday.

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Di Maria was named man of the match after the Old Trafford encounter, having opened the scoring on 27 minutes before assisting Radamel Falcao for his first goal in United colours after the hour mark.

De Gea produced a fine one-handed save to deny Leighton Baines from the penalty spot just before the half-time break after Luke Shaw had brought down Tony Hibbert inside the area.

The Toffees had briefly been level when Steven Naismith headed home a 55th-minute equaliser, and they could even have taken the lead but for the heroics of De Gea, who made four crucial saves to deny the visitors a way back into the contest.

United made it back-to-back wins in the league for the first time this season, and while Van Gaal admits there is still plenty of room for improvement, he praised the duo for their key contributions on the day.

"When you hold the penalty out in the dying seconds, you hold three magnificent saves, then you are great because you win the game because of that," the Dutchman told BT Sport 1 after the game.

"When you give assists and also you score goals, what can you ask more of a player?

"But of course we have to improve in a lot of things and also Di Maria has to improve. When you do that every week - and he does that every week - then we have to be very pleased with him."

Di Maria was quick to pay tribute to his team-mate De Gea for an outstanding showing to preserve the three points.

The Argentine star said: "I think David is the guy the who deserves this reward rather than myself, he saved us throughout the game and particularly towards the end and the penalty as well so not only him but the rest of the side deserve this."

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