Juan Mata celebrates scoring (Photo: PA)
Juan Mata admitted he was lucky to remain on the pitch in Manchester United's 3-0 Premier League victory at the King Power Stadium, reports the Manchester Evening News.
The Spaniard was shown a yellow card just before the half-hour mark for a rash tackle on Jamie Vardy in which he raised his studs and slid in, sending the England striker flying.
Mata had lost possession moments earlier and rushed back in an attempt to reclaim it but ended up fouling Vardy.
The United playmaker, who was uncharacteristically sent off at West Brom last season, went on to net his eighth goal of the season after the break but stressed his intention was to win the ball off Vardy.
"I was late," he told Sky Sports. "I was late. I tried to reach the ball. I didn't want to hurt Jamie in any case but obviously I was late and probably I was a bit lucky there.
"But that was my own intention, to try to get the ball just because I lost it 10 seconds before."
Mata was thrilled he and Henrikh Mkhitaryan eased the burden on top scorer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with their efforts after Mourinho's midweek criticism.
"It was obviously very important for Mkhi and me to score because Zlatan is scoring a lot of goals," he added.
"But we need goals from us as well, we are scoring, we are creating chances and obviously today we enjoyed today on the pitch because there was space to play at the other end.
"I think the performance was quite good, even before scoring the first goal, I think we were trying to control the game through passes and trying to have the ball and obviously, Mkhi's first goal was an incredible goal and after that we played very good and could have scored twice more so we are very happy today because you know today we took the chance."
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