Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JOSE A HAPPY FELLA
Fellaini’s late, late winner spared Mourinho’s blushes with United’s first home Euro goal this season
FIRST, he booted the bottles in celebration, then, he picked up a whole tray and hurled them into the Astroturf surround.
Jose Mourinho, relieved? You bet. Been feeling the pressure? Clearly.
When Marouane Fellaini turned and struck an addedtime winner, it was not just relief his team has now qualified for the Champions League knockout stages.
And the pressure had not just been eased because his side can now relax in Valencia.
No, Mourinho knew a failure to score for a fifth time at Old Trafford this season would have brought a deluge of criticism.
He needed this Fellaini goal more than most in his long and decorated managerial career.
Especially after his latest Premier League debacle.
In victory, United were not as bad, not as listless, as they were at the weekend but, then again, Young Boys were no Crystal Palace. When Mourinho mounted his no heart/no desire offensive on Saturday evening, the accused went unidentified.
Until the teamsheet dropped for this engagement, that is.
Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku were to be found on the bench while Alexis Sanchez and Ashley Young were nowhere to be seen.
Having said that, Mourinho’s pre-match explanation of his inclusion of Marcus Rashford was, basically, that he had bowed to public and media pressure. And his faith in Rashford was soon tested.
Luke Shaw sent his England team-mate clear but Rashford lifted his effort over the advancing David von Ballmoos and over the crossbar.
Mourinho stretched his arms wide, turned, folded his arms theatrically and fixed his staff with a told-you-so look.
As for his reaction when Jesse Lingard clumsily overhit what should have been a simple chance-creating pass … file it as undiluted disdain.
Yet surely Mourinho has to acknowledge the greater level dynamism that comes with an attacking threesome of Rashford, Anthony Martial and Lingard. A trio with brio.
The young boys against the ageing Young Boys should have been a mis-match, Rashford
able to give the 35-year-old skipper Steve von Bergen a fiveyard start and only need 10 to breeze past him.
Mourinho’s head-shaking went into overdrive when Rashford tested the sidenetting and Fellaini put a sitter into one of the many empty seats around Old Trafford.
Finally Lingard and Fred made way for Lukaku and Pogba. Yet United’s mountainous debt to an elastic David De Gea grew a touch greater when he somehow kept out a twice-deflected Michel Aebischer shot. United began to lose their discipline – no-one more than Shaw – and that clearly lifted opposition confidence.
Maybe they switched off as Shaw’s hopeful punt was flicked on by Lukaku and Fellaini produced a smart finish, albeit after a delicate, but crucial, handball that was not spotted.
And as Mourinho laid into the drinks containers (left), at least his team had shown a bit of bottle.