Pogba injury casts cloud over United victory
They are marking the 50th anniversary of their first European Cup triumph of 1968 this season at Old Trafford and, if you were expecting a re-conquering of the competition to commemorate the achievements of Sir Matt Busby’s great side, then Jose Mourinho was on hand to douse any optimism.
Back in the competition following their second season’s absence of the post-sir Alex Ferguson era, this was United looking comfortably superior against low-ranking opposition, while elsewhere the big guns of Barcelona, Paris St-germain and even Chelsea were racking up big victories. Asked what that might mean for the competition, Mourinho said that for those others the group stage was just “a warm-up”, although pointedly he said not for his new team of Europa League qualifiers.
“I think Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern are just warming up,” Mourinho said. “In February when us English teams are trying to survive after the winter period, they’re fresh and ready. For them this is just the warm-up, we’re in the second level and that level is, ‘Let’s qualify, let’s get points for the knockout phase and if we do that, let’s enjoy playing against the big guys’.”
Other than that, just one dark cloud on the night of Storm Eileen, that being the injury that forced Paul Pogba out the game early in the first half and caused him to leave Old Trafford on crutches. Mourinho’s immediate diagnosis was a hamstring tear – “big or small, I don’t know” – which might yet have consequences for United’s immediate season, if not this night.
On the occasion of the club’s first Champions League win for 679 days, going right back to a 1-0 victory over CSKA Moscow on Nov 3, 2015, Pogba gave way on 19 minutes, wincing as he walked down to the touchline to be replaced by Marouane Fellaini, subsequently scorer of United’s first and creator of the third. Fellaini turned out to be United’s outstanding performer, preferred to Ander Herrera who was not even on the bench.
There was yet another milestone for Marcus Rashford, who came on as a substitute and added another chapter to his remarkable record of scoring on his various debuts. This time it was a goal in the 19-yearold’s first Champions League game just as he scored in his first appearances in the Europa League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup and his international debuts at senior and Under-21s level.
In the interim, Romelu Lukaku headed in his sixth in six games for his new club, the second on the night after which Basel switched to a four-man defence and, for the first prolonged period, tried to score a goal themselves. “After it went 2-0, I think everything changed,” Mourino said.
“We stopped playing, stopped thinking. We stopped playing seriously. We stopped making the right decisions on the pitch and could have put ourselves in trouble but they didn’t score and the third goal came.
“[There were] bad decisions, fantasy football, Playstation football, [too many] tricks. When you stop playing as a team and seriously, I don’t like it. You gamble a little bit. Probably the players felt that the game was under control at 2-0, but football is football and you have to respect the opponent.”
FC Basel have won nine Swiss league championships over the past 10 years so the kind of waiting game they were obliged to play for most of this match will have been a serious divergence from their usual domestic business. At half-time they had managed just 31 per cent of the possession, a statistic which felt on the high side given how little input they had in the game.
United’s first-half goal for Fellaini had come down Basel’s left side where the majority of the home team’s attacking play had been directed. There had been some fine combinations down there, with Lukaku getting himself in to cut one back for Henrkh Mkhitaryan and another good move involving Juan Mata and Anthony Martial that created a further chance for the Armenian that he also missed.
Generally speaking however, it was Ashley Young leading the way down that flank, the 32-year-old throwing himself into the action for the first time since he was injured in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final against Celta Vigo in early May. It was Young, playing right-back, who twisted and got a yard on the wing-back Blas Riveros on 35 minutes. He crossed perfectly for Fellaini to power one in with his head from a few yards out.
Young was wearing the captain’s armband by then, handed to him when Pogba walked off, not a little distraught on 18 minutes. His hand had gone instinctively to the back of his left thigh following an innocuous challenge. Up until then he looked his usual busy self and a man who tried to get the ball to Lukaku early and quickly.
In the centre of defence, Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling replaced the suspended Phil Jones and Eric Bailly and there were moments when both looked a little uncertain. Basel’s best effort on United’s goal came after the hour when the Norwegian winger Mohamed Elyounoussi beat Lindelof and lashed a shot that David de Gea swatted away.
Mourinho’s expression was that of pure disgust at Mkhitaryan’s misplaced pass in midfield that gave Basel the opening and perhaps it was that he was talking about when he cited the sloppiness in the second half. By then United were two ahead, a precise cross from Daley Blind dropping nicely for Lukaku at the back post who was undeterred by the grip exerted on him by the Basel captain Marek Suchy.
United’s control was pretty much absolute although there was little in the game for Martial save one run from the left when he cut in on his right and hit a shot at the near post. His game was up when Mourinho brought on Jesse Lingard and although there was a standing ova-
tion as the Frenchman came off it did not feel like an evening that changed his season.
It was just Martial’s luck that Rashford, on for Mata, had the best chance of all with six regulation minutes left, a burst from Fellaini down the right and a cutback that Mkhitaryan failed to connect with. The ball fell to Rashford, creeping unmarked into space and his shot into the ground meant that the ball spun over Tomas Vaclik and into Basel’s goal.
Rashford’s knack for picking up goals is impressive but it comes from an instinctive awareness to move into the spaces that open up at points in the game when others are looking elsewhere.
He knows that he has to take advantages of the minutes he has on the pitch because, when United’s squad are all fit, Mourinho has quite a range of leading players to choose from, whatever he might argue otherwise.