MATA THE MAN
Juan-nil is enough to send Jose through
WE can get to how Manchester United won in a moment. First off, here’s why they won. They won because of the away goals rule.
Not that they needed it to go through. The aggregate score is 21. Yet Manchester United won what was a very tight encounter, because they scored in Rostov, which meant Rostov had to score to have any possibility of progressing.
So they couldn’t throw a blanket of defensively massed yellow shirts over the game indefinitely, as they did in the first-half. Eventually, they had to start playing, they had to try to get that away goal, had to make the match open.
And when they did, Manchester United, as the better side, picked them off. So the system works. The best side goes through to the quarter-finals, the one with less ambition goes home. We should be happy for that, at least.
And happy with how United won, too, because it really was a lovely goal, scored on the counter-attack just when Rostov had introduced striker Aleksandr Bukharov from the substitutes bench and were looking dangerous.
Credit Juan Mata, too, for his wonderful contribution. To think it was believed Jose Mourinho took against him at Chelsea as he did not work hard enough. He started the move on the halfway line here, nicking the ball which ran into the path of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and finished it off after making a lung bursting run into the box.
In between, Ibrahimovic carried the ball and laid it out to Henrikh Mkhitaryan and then made the box too, receiving his cross and contributing the deftest flick to take it into Mata’s path, unmarked, the target now invitingly open. Yes, he could hardly miss — but the sequence of passes that had created that opportunity were quite lovely.
Timely, too, Rostov at last com- ing into the game having at last left their own half. Sardar Azmoun had forced a good save from Sergio Romero —and when he was replaced by Bukharov, the imposing striker had a header tipped wide. Still, United were comfortable enough for the crowd to revel in the sight of Phil Jones deputising at left wing-back for the injured Daley Blind — and United are in the quarter-final draw of a tournament that rewards the winners with a Champions League place. A prize that will not be underestimated, with the club currently lying sixth.
Frustration has been a familiar feeling at Old Trafford this season. It isn’t that Manchester United are not playing well, more that they are finding it hard to win, to convert all that fine football, and all those chances into the only currency that matters in football: goals.
So while the opening 45 minutes here will have added to the anguish of the locals, it will hardly have come as a shock. Manchester United hit the post twice, and had a penalty denied.
They had clever tricks in the box that found no one, shots that posed a greater threat to the television aerials on nearby houses, and had to deal with massed ranks of yellow shirts.
Rostov set out their stall in the opening 13 minutes. In that time, three of their players could be found prone in their own penalty area, sucking time out of the game as they rested.
When the fourth official signalled a lonely minute of added time at the end of the half, the scowls and eye rolling were worthy of a BAFTA nomination.
The one consolation for United was that even if it remained 0-0 they would still go through on away goals. Sooner or later, Rostov were going to have to come out of their shell to progress.
Rostov occasionally threatened a counter-attack, but they amounted to little. At one stage Christian Noboa, the captain, broke and looked for an out ball only to discover he was the farthest yellow shirt up the field and still 25 yards inside his own half.
It would have been a very different game had Manchester United’s first chance of the match gone in. It came after five minutes, a Danny Blind corner from the left, headed goalwards by Marcos Rojo and flipped up into the night air by goalkeeper Nikita Medvedev. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was first to it as the ball fell, but succeeded only in hitting the outside of the post from a tight angle.
In the 16th minute, Juan Mata played a lovely through pass for the Swede who spotted Medvedev in a poor position and took the ball around him. Again, though, the angle was too much. Medvedev recovered and Ibrahimovic’s shot was deflected over.
The Rostov goalkeeper, however, alternated between moments of great confidence — some very impressive takes in the air some distance from his line — and others of great skittishness.
After 27 minutes, United should have had a penalty when he shoved Mkhitaryan, with two hands, in the back as they waited for a high ball to drop.
The additional assistant referee saw nothing, which was a pity because it’s exactly the sort of thing he is there to spot.
After 30 minutes, Mata played Mkhitaryan in again with another exquisite through pass, his chipped finish travelling just wide, while moments later an Antonio Valencia cross was flicked on by Ibrahimovic, but without a team-mate to convert at the far post.
This was Manchester United’s best period, though, and in the 34th minute Ibrahimovic cut in on the left before unleashing a shot that smashed the far post, which somehow remained intact despite the force of the shot.
Paul Pogba, whose attempts at goal had mostly been wild, finally got one on target in first-half stoppage time, forcing a fine save from Medvedev, but it was his last serious involvement in the game.
He looked to have been struggling through a knock and three minutes into the second-half was withdrawn with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. It really hasn’t been his year so far.