Ronaldo rides to the rescue
ATALANTA STUNNED ONCE MORE BY THE BRILLIANT FINISHING OF UNITED STAR
minutes in which passes went horribly astray and several very poor decisions were made.
One saw him hassled deep in his own half, eventually attempting a suicidal square pass across his own penalty area to alleviate the pressure. Zapata cut it out and Bailly made a superb block to avert a second Atalanta goal.
Soon after, Varane went off injured and Solskjaer abandoned the 5-3-2 formation that may have saved his job at the weekend.
On in place of the centre-half — Greenwood.
United had went close as early as the third minute when a Scott McTominay shot, going nowhere, caught a wicked deflection, wrong-footed Musso and skidded agonisingly out of his reach before gently tapping a post. Atalanta got lucky, as they did a little with their opening goal.
It was a McTominay tackle that deflected the ball into a dangerous area but the Italians were simply sharper to react to this moment of random fortune.
Zapata was on to it quicker than Aaron Wan-Bissaka and cut the ball back to Ilicic on the edge of the area. His shot was tame, really, and straight at De Gea, but the ball squirmed under the Spaniard’s body and into the net.
ATALANTA (3-4-2-1): Musso 6; De Roon 7, Demiral 6, Palomino 5; Zappacosta 7, Koopmeiners 6, Freuler 7, Maehle 6; Ilicic 7 (Muriel 71), Pasalic 5 (Djimsiti 46); Zapata 7. Subs not used: Pezzella, Malinovsky, Rossi, Scalvini, Sportiello, Miranchuk, Lovato, Piccoli. Booked: None. MANCHESTER UNITED (5-3-2): De Gea 5; WanBissaka 6, Bailly 7, Varane 6 (Greenwood 38), Maguire 5, Shaw 6; Fernandes 6 (Van de Beek 87), McTominay 6 (Sancho 87), Pogba 5 (Matic 69); Rashford 6 (Cavani 69), Ronaldo 8. Subs not used: Mata, Martial, Lingard, Fred, Dalot, Henderson, Telles. Booked: McTominay. Man of the match: Cristiano Ronaldo. Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).