CALAMITY JONES!
Defender’s own goal ends all hope of top spot
JOSE MOURINHO thought the result at the Mestalla last night would not matter. It turned out the Manchester United manager was wrong.
Juventus’s surprise defeat to Young Boys in Switzerland meant that United’s failure to win cost them first place in Group H — as much as it would have flattered them — and the chance of an easier draw in the last 16.
Instead, Mourinho made a raft of changes and saw United beaten by a Valencia team who can count themselves unfortunate to be dropping into the Europa League.
The United boss admitted: ‘I think we were too passive in the first half. We were comfortable with the ball but not in intensity and ambition.
‘In the second half, I was sure that things could be different but we started with an own goal that gave Valencia a better position.
‘I made the two changes later and the team improved immediately, we started playing faster, arriving with link play in more dangerous positions and we probably should get to 2-2 because we had a couple of good chances.’
Mourinho was looking for a performance from some players and he did not get it.
Paul Pogba, benched for three of the last five games, started and did nothing to suggest that he should keep his place against Liverpool on Sunday.
Indeed, the erratic Frenchman was guilty of a horrible miss in the first half when he was wrongly flagged offside.
Phil Jones will not remember this night too fondly either. His header led to Carlos Soler’s opening goal and Jones calamitously scored the second in his own net soon after half-time.
At least Marcus Rashford came out of the game with some credit when he finished off a move involving fellow substitutes Jesse Lingard and Ashley Young with a goal in the 87th minute.
Antonio Valencia was among the players brought into the side and endured a terrible start when he was booked inside the opening ten minutes for flattening Toni Lato with an ugly challenge.
Valencia went ahead in the 17th minute when Cristiano Piccini and Santi Mina combined on the right flank for the latter to send in a cross. Jones headed clear but it only reached Soler just inside the box. He had time to drill a low shot with his right foot and United’s goalkeeper Sergio Romero was unsighted as it flew into the bottom corner.
The Spaniards increased their lead within two minutes of the restart. Mourinho had sent on Young for Marcos Rojo at the interval to counter Valencia’s threat down the right but this one came through the middle and was finished by one of his own players.
Jones galloped after Soler’s pass under pressure from Michy Batshuayi. He must have seen that Romero was coming off his line as he slid in to prod the ball back to him but steered it beyond the goalkeeper and into his own net. VALENCIA (4-4-2): Domenech; Piccini, Vezo, Diakhaby, Lato (Garay 51); Soler, Kondogbia, Parejo, Cheryshev (Torres 66); Batshuayi, Mina 7 (Rodrigo 68). Subs not used: Neto, Coquelin, Kangin, Wass. Booked: Lato. MAN UTD (4-3-3): Romero; Valencia, Bailly, Jones, Rojo (Young 46); Fred (Rashford 57), Fellaini, Pogba; Mata, Lukaku (Lingard 69), Pereira. Subs not used: Grant, Garner, Greenwood, Herrera. Booked: Valencia, Bailly, Rashford. Referee: Georgi Kabakov (Bulgaria). Attendance: 36,544.