OLE’S BANISHED TO TIER TWO
It’s Europa League in new year for United as City loanee Angelino leads Leipzig to famous victory
And the moral to this story? not every team is Brighton, Southampton, newcastle or West Ham. Sooner or later, Manchester United were going to hand a head start to a team who were good enough to hold it.
RB Leipzig were, just. United pulled two back late and nordi Mukiele almost put one into his own net in injury time, which would have sent them through, but no team gets that lucky, that often. United had already benefitted from a soft penalty and a possible handball in the build-up to the second, so to get a third courtesy of a panicking full back would have been too good to be true. Which it was.
Undoubtedly, the best team won. United’s comeback came about because they were chasing the game from one minute and 50 seconds when Leipzig took the lead. They were two up after 13 minutes and three clear after 69.
There were just 59 seconds between Bruno Fernandes hitting the bar to give United a glimmer of hope and Justin Kluivert scoring the third goal that puts them out of the Champions League, but the bottom line is United had far too much to do. For all their secondhalf pressure they were simply too vulnerable once two goals down. It will catch up with them in the Premier League eventually, as well.
It is a desperately disappointing denouement, given the start United made in this group. They won in Paris, they beat Leipzig 5-0 at home. Then the rot began in Istanbul and has eaten through the campaign.
United have now lost three of their last four games and their first back-to-back in the Champions League group stage since 2012. They were set up to defend initially, too. needing only a point and with Edinson Cavani and Anthony Martial unavailable, it was not as if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer picked a team for the cavalier approach.
There were five defenders, two holding midfield players and only Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood in attacking roles. despite this, for the first 20 minutes or so, United were pinned back. Leipzig were smarter, sharper, slick with their passing, and ambitious. The beating they took at Old Trafford earlier in the campaign was clearly an anomaly. Here was the reality of Julian nagelsmann’s team, and United could not cope with it.
Specifically, they could not cope with Angelino on the left, a fact made doubly embarrassing by his status as a Manchester City player, loaned to Leipzig for experience. On this evidence he won’t be away long. He scored the first, created the second and would have made a third with better finishing. United struggled with his runs, the pace of them, and his penchant for first-time delivery. The clock had not passed two minutes when Leipzig took the lead.
It was a gorgeous crossfield ball from Leipzig captain Marcel Sabitzer, but United’s defence, as a group, were nowhere. The most starkly exposed was Aaron WanBissaka who was not at all alert to the run Angelino had made in from the left flank behind him. He met Sabitzer’s ball perfectly, unleashing a low shot across david de Gea that gave Manchester United’s goalkeeper no chance. It was the worst possible start.
A lively counter- attack after nine minutes could have brought United quickly back into the game, but a poor finish from Greenwood allowed Leipzig to escape. not true at the other end, though.
After 13 minutes the ball was fed to Angelino once more. This time it was the accuracy of his delivery that counted, picking out Amadou Haidara, Leipzig’s man over on the far right. His finish was equally precise — de Gea left with no chance once again.
It could have been three just four minutes later as United gasped for air. Out to Angelino again, striking a first-time cross which inexplicably located Emil Forsberg on the penalty spot, unmarked. He tried to pick his place, but steered the ball just wide. And breathe.
It could not carry on like this and at half-time Solskjaer replaced Telles with donny van de Beek and the back three with a four. It did not bode well when Van de Beek gave the ball away with his first touch but, as ever, United
came out much improved. They won a succession of corners and then a free-kick which Fernandes whipped in to within an inch of several team-mates, to no avail.
In the 68th minute, Brandon Williams won a free- kick and Fernandes rapped the bar with it from just outside the area. Yet what happened next summed up why United are out.
Leipzig broke down the left and struck a cross which took a deflection. Harry Maguire, caught in two minds, chose not to deal with it. De Gea was slow to react, too.
Between them slipped substitute Justin Kluivert — very much his father’s son — with a quite exquisite finish. He dinked it, subtly, perfectly, over the advancing goalkeeper, going for it with his feet, as is his style. And that looked to have made Leipzig safe.
Yet this is United, so nothing is simple. It must be said, however, that referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz played a part. He’s a showy official, always has been, and nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. The penalty award that earned United a lifeline was as soft as they come.
Ibrahima Konate and Greenwood came together shoulder to shoulder, no more. Both men went down, but Mateu Lahoz saw a foul.
Fernandes stepped up, hopped, skipped, jumped and stuck the ball to the right of goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.
Then, three minutes later, a United corner on the left. Fernandes whipped it in, Paul Pogba — on as a 60th-minute substitute — rose half a torso higher than any player to head goalwards at the far post, Konate unable to keep it out on the line. Leipzig’s players claimed it hit Maguire on the arm — later replays suggested they had a case — and the goal stood.
Can they score? They always score. Actually, that’s not true. There are plenty of games in which United needed a goal, but it eluded them. This was another. Mukiele almost turned a Pogba cross into his own net in injury time, but the ball struck a clueless Gulacsi and he gathered.
So it wasn’t enough. Sooner or later it was always going to catch up with them. Manchester United have come up second-best to a team they put seven past across two games. That’s what happens if you give head starts.