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Smalling: Martial overcame the pressure

Cape Town - Manchester United defender Chris Smalling believes Anthony Martial has done well under pressure in his first season at Old Trafford.

Martial joined United from Monaco in a £36 million deal on transfer deadline day at the start of the campaign.

The France international has repaid the faith, scoring 14 goals in all competitions thus far, including a late winner in the FA Cup semi-finals against Everton at Wembley on Saturday.

"No one is going to have a harder circumstance coming to Old Trafford with the pressure he had and he is performing brilliantly," said Smalling.

"A lot of players come with potential but it's how they perform on that stage and luckily enough for us he's taken to it like it's like it's nothing.

"Not many players come in with that amount of pressure and he was relatively unknown to the majority of us so to see him turn up week after week, he's our main attacking threat and he's been brilliant all season.

"Nothing seems to faze him and you can see that when he gets the ball, he's got the beating of anyone no matter who he's playing against.

"More often than not he gets the beating of them and that's great for us because you just want to feed players like that who are constantly that high on confidence all season.

"You can tell in training sessions, his pace, his ability to take on people, after a few training sessions you have to try to suss him out."

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