In the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal match against Sevilla at Old Trafford on Thursday night, Manchester United blew a 2-0 lead, ultimately drawing 2-2.
A spirited United team got off to a great start in the first half thanks to Marcel Sabitzer. Yet late on, Sevilla equalized the score with two own goals from Tyrell Malacia and Harry Maguire.
When Jadon Sancho was put through on goal and finished coolly with just 27 seconds remaining, United thought they had absolutely smashed their opening. However, an offside flag was raised.
As it turned out, the home team kept up the frantic early tempothe combinations of Sancho, Anthony Martial, and Antony in those initial exchanges were especially strongand it wasn't long until Sabitzer's superb first goal gave them the lead.
Bruno Fernandes fizzed the ball into the Austrian, whose eagerness to advance as far as possible made United's 4-2-3-1 formation occasionally resemble a 4-4-2. He controlled the ball with one touch before launching a left-footed effort from about 15 yards out high into the top corner.
Only a few minutes later, Martial found him on another run beyond, and he scored his second goal with a cool finish past an approaching Bono.
When Erik Lamela made contact with Casemiro's leg with his studs in the final seconds of the first half, he avoided a VAR red card check. Lamela once managed to provoke Martial into receiving a red card during his Tottenham days. Sevilla's greatest opportunity of the first half came from a free kick by Ivan Rakitic that narrowly missed the goal after a controversial Bruno Fernandes handball call.
Uniteds early dominance had actually faded by the time the half-time whistle sounded and Sevilla were inches away from getting one back when Raphael Varane headed off the line after David de Gea had parried a powerful header from Tanguy Nianzou up in the air.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0