Unitednow back where they belong –Mourinho
Lukaku on the double as English giants tear Russian hosts apart with devastating ease
AFTER destroying CSKA Moscow in their own stadium, Jose Mourinho proclaimed that Manchester United had returned to the levels of European performance they had once been accustomed to.
“The last appearances of Manchester United were not the best,” Mourinho reflected after an emphatic 4-1 victory that propelled them within striking distance of the Champions League knockout stages. “It was not a very good record and after a season away from the competition we came back with a strong performance. Nobody was speaking about the players who were not here.”
The last time Manchester United were in Moscow, two years ago under Louis van Gaal, they produced a laboured 1-1 draw against CSKA in a season that saw them exit the Champions League at the group stage.
This was a very different display and Mourinho, who was missing Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini, praised the performances of those who had been on the fringes of his Premier League side – the likes of Anthony Martial, Ander Herrera and Victor Lindelof.
“We started so strong and we surprised them with our attitude,” he added. “CSKA Moscow did not look as good as they are because of us.”
His opposite number, the CSKA manager Victor Goncharenko, was shocked by the scale of their defeat. He had briefed his defence on what Romelu Lukaku, who scored twice, was capable of and it had not the slightest effect.
“It is hard to talk when you have been destroyed and when you have lost by such a great score,” he said. “It ruins my health when we spoke in detail about what Lukaku can do and we then made so many mistakes to make it so easy for Manchester United.”
Mourinho’s decision to sign a footballer he had allowed to leave while manager of Chelsea has paid rich dividends. These were Lukaku’s ninth and tenth goals for United. “Lukaku has a great record but he is surrounded by quality players,” said Mourinho. “But I have to admit he is scoring really important goals in nearly every game.”
Lukaku was only denied a hat-trick by a superb save from Igor Akinfeev, who spent much of the night looking aghast at his defenders, who never tired of exposing their captain.
United have returned to the Champions League with a 7-1 aggregate victory from their opening two games and they face home and away fixtures against Benfica, who were beaten in Lisbon by CSKA and thrashed in Switzerland by Basel.
They can already start planning for the knockout stages. Despite winning the European Cup in Moscow, Manchester United had a poor away record against Russian teams and now they came out in an odd, off-white strip; the kind that Persil would suggest was washed by Brand X.
Fashion-wise it might have been a faux pas but within four minutes of the kick-off those shirts were coming together to congratulate Lukaku in what has become a familiar scene.
It was a simple, brilliantly-constructed move that saw Anthony Martial, preferred to Marcus Rashford in Mourinho’s three-man forward line, deliver a deep cross that was a contest between the young, athletic Lukaku and Sergei Ignashevich, who at 38 is neither. Lukaku won the header and won Manchester United the lead.
His second of a chill Moscow night resulted from another dreadful defensive error from CSKA’s ageing back line. This time, Martial, who had just put United two up from the penalty spot, drove in a low cross that Vasili Berezutski, who at 35 is a mere stripling alongside Ignashevich, ought to have cut out.
Instead, the defender launched a kick at thin, cold air and Lukaku stabbed home the kind of goal that would have been an embarrassment in training let alone on a Champions League night. The forward simply folded his arms in celebration. United were three up before the half-hour mark. The game was dead.
CSKA might have been buried even more quickly. When Manchester United played out a considerably less-impressive 1-1 draw in Rostov in March, Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s every move was applauded by the city’s large Armenian community. Here in the heart of Moscow he gave his travelling supporters something to remember him by.
The first was a shot, after he was
put through by Daley Blind, that Akinfeev, whom Alex Ferguson seriously considered signing instead of David De Gea, saved well with his feet. Then, as Mkhitaryan danced through on the right and was brought down by a park-pitch type challenge. Martial stepped up to convert the penalty.
After the interval, Mkhitaryan scored effortlessly as Akinfeev palmed Martial’s shot into his path. Jesse Lingard came on for him and almost scored with his first touch.
CSKA Moscow were rather better going forward – they could scarcely have been worse.
It is very hard to be critical of the kind of performance Manchester United produced here but the back three Mourinho employed were sometimes sliced open.
Amid the carnage at the other end, De Gea had plenty of saves to make and one of them, from the 19-year-old Fedor Chalov, was breathtakingly tipped over.
CSKA Moscow deserved the last-minute goal Konstantin Kuchaev’s near-post shot on the run gave them but it was a thin, bitter consolation.
Even on a night with no negatives, Mourinho could not resist a swipe at Liverpool who had been less impressive in their 1-1 draw in Moscow, against Spartak.
“They play Tuesday and then they play Sunday. We, however, play Wednesday and then 3pm on Saturday.”
That, however, is against Crystal Palace, a team who could give CSKA Moscow a lesson when it comes to abject football. (© Independent News Service)