Manchester United star Juan Mata warns Marcus Rashford is not the finished article

Manchester United star Juan Mata has warned against expecting too much too soon for new striking sensation Marcus Rashford, after pointing out that he is still an 18-year-old talent "in the making". The former Chelsea star, meanwhile, expressed his delight after his side responded to the Europa league elimination with a 1-0 victory at Manchester City to keep alive their hopes to secure the Premier League top four in order to qualify for the Champions League.

Rashford once again made the headlines after scoring a crucial goal in his first Manchester derby to leave his side just one point behind Manuel Pellegrini's side in the table. The 18-year-old has emerged as one of the sensations of this Premier League campaign after he already netted braces in his first-team debut against Midtjylland in the Europe League and in the 3-2 victory over Arsenal in February.

Mata, however, has urged patience with his teammate as despite his meteoric rise Rashford is still a teenager.

Mata wrote in his weekly blog: "In the first half the game was even but after good play, Marcus showed again that he is a great player in the making. We all believe in him although we must remember that he's still very young and he's just arrived in the first team. In the second half we had some good moments but at the end, as we expected, City pushed hard trying to level the score.

"However, we were able to keep the advantage and finally took the three points that put a smile on our faces before the international break. I think all of us should enjoy the good moments..."

The former Chelsea maestro hopes the victory helps them to move on from the Europa League elimination to end the season on a high with the Champions League qualification.

"The game was very intense and we took advantage of our best moments of play to seal the victory. I think we looked more experienced than in previous occasions,"

"I don't want to overlook last Thursday's game in the Europa League, our farewell to this competition. I honestly think that we gave everything we got and we believed in the comeback, but being 1-1 at half-time made things very difficult. It was a pity because we had to pay for our bad game in the first leg, but there is nothing we can do now," he said. "It's better to look ahead, try to win as many games as we can and have the feeling we have right now after every match. These last three points offers us an opportunity to fight for a Champions League place."