Epic night in Europe sees United in hat for quarters
UNITED are in the hat for the quarter-final draw of the Champions League after securing an incredible victory away at Paris Saint-Germain in the second-leg of their last 16 encounter last night.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side defied the odds to overturn a 2-0 home defeat thanks to a brace from Romelu Lukaku and a late penalty from Marcus Rashford.
City will be hoping to join their neighbours in the last eight of the European competition when they meet Schalke for the second time next week.
WHEN IS THE DRAW? THE draw for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will take place on Friday, March 15, from the Uefa headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Proceedings are due to begin at 11am UK time.
HOW CAN I FOLLOW THE DRAW? The draw will be televised live on BT Sport. As always you will be able to follow the entire draw in M.E.N. Sports dedicated Champions League draw blog.
WHICH TEAMS WILL BE IN THE QUARTER-FINALS? Tottenham Ajax United Porto City/Schalke Bayern Munich/Liverpool Atletico Madrid/Juventus Barcelona/Lyon WHO CAN UNITED FACE? UNLIKE the previous round, the quarter-finals are an open draw which means there is no seeding or country protection from now on in the competition.
This means we could see two Premier League sides face each other. Whichever side is drawn first will play the first-leg of the quarter-final at their home ground.
WHEN DO THE TIES TAKE PLACE? THE first leg of the quarter-final ties will take place on either April 9 or 10, with the return leg to follow a week later on either April 16 or 17.
The remaining four sides will then proceed to the semi-final stage of the Champions League with first leg fixtures taking place on either April 30 or May 1, with the return legs a week later on May 7 and May 8.
WHEN IS THE FINAL? THE final will take place at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium on Saturday, June 1. SIR Alex Ferguson congratulated Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the United players after their extraordinary Champions League comeback at Paris Saint-Germain.
The Reds went into the second leg at the Parc des Princes 2-0 down and without 10 players through injury and suspension and five teenagers on their substitutes’ bench.
However, United led 2-1 at the interval through Romelu Lukaku’s brace and the Video Assistant Referee adjudged that Presnel Kimpembe had handled Diogo RIO Ferdinand has heaped praise on Marcus Rashford for stepping up to take the crucial penalty in last night’s win over PSG.
United sealed their spot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in style, coming back in dramatic fashion to win on away goals.
The Reds trailed 2-0 from their Dalot’s goalbound shot in stoppagetime.
After a four-minute-and-ninesecond delay, Marcus Rashford converted a 95th-minute penalty to seal an incredible recovery.
Ferguson and co-owner Avram Glazer were among the figures who congratulated United players at fulltime and Solskjaer described the scenes in a euphoric visitors’ dressing room.
“Got some fantastic memories,” Solskjaer said. “Football, that’s what it gives you. It’s special when you’re a coach or a manager doing it with your staff and players.
“The dressing room in there was defeat at Old Trafford in the first leg and had a huge selection headache ahead of the match, with 10 members of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad on the treatment table.
However, a remarkable comeback in Paris was secured after two firsthalf goals from Romelu Lukaku, either side of Juan Bernat’s effort for the hosts, before Marcus Rashford’s penalty deep into stoppage time sealed another absolutely unbelievable, just to see the club together, with the owners, ex-managers, ex-players, great atmosphere.
“Of course he’ [Ferguson]s happy and proud, as well, this is how we do things at Man United.”
United have qualified for the Champions League quarter-finals for just the second time since they reached the final in 2011 and the manner of their victory has fuelled belief of a possible fourth European Cup triumph in the club’s history.
Solskjaer insists he is unconcerned about who United draw in the last eight.
“We always believed,” Solskjaer added. “That’s the thing. We set out the plan, it wasn’t about having the ball and outplaying them, because if you give them too much space and time, with [Kylian] Mbappe, you saw a few times in the first-half when we missed our defensive shape they threw us straight away.
“The plan was to get the first goal, be in the game with five or 10 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer memorable European night for United.
After Presnel Kimpembe was judged to have handballed Diogo Dalot’s shot from distance, Rashford stepped up and smashed past Gianluigi Buffon to put United in dreamland.
“What I loved about this is when that penalty was given, there wasn’t any other player on that pitch who was getting the ball. He went there minutes to go and we were. Of course we fancy ourselves. “We can go all the way but we just have to wait for the draw and then take the game as it comes. We’ve had loads of injuries, suspensions, but that was maybe a good thing today. “We had a fresh team, loads of energy, and we defend and were humble enough to work hard and we had a team to do that.” Meanwhile Solskjaer hailed Fred’s performance at Paris SaintGermain as his ‘breakthrough.’ United signed Fred for £52m from Shakhtar Donetsk in the summer but the Brazilian has struggled for much of the season and last week played his first game in 53 days. Since Fred appeared at Crystal Palace last Wednesday, he assisted Romelu Lukaku’s winner against Southampton and performed impeccably in the remarkable recovery against PSG. Fred, 26, started in a midfield axis with Scott McTominay against Marco Verratti and Marquinhos as United switched to a and said ‘this is me, this is my stage’,” said the former Reds captain.
“That’s the difference between good players and top players. This kid is a top player.”
Rashford also earned praise from former United striker Michael Owen.
He said: “He’s almost one of the leaders as well now. Having been in that position, you just go numb.”