Jesse Lingard did his best to inject pace and invention, but breathing creative life into a stubbornly moribund United might be a task beyond a 22-year-old with only a handful of first-team appearances.
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“PSV were the better team in the last 30 minutes”.
Fans illuminated the screens on their smartphones and held them aloft during the seventh minute of the Champions League game, in a nod to the shirt number most closely associated with the richly talented Northern Irish winger.
The atmosphere started to become nervous as it entered the final ten minutes and he home side had a great chance four minutes from the end when Rooney played a risky ball into the back post, but Marouane Fellaini couldn’t turn it in.
Wednesday’s home stalemate against PSV, in a game where victory would have secured their passage to the round of 16, left the three-time victors facing an uphill task.
A win here and United could have put themselves beyond PSV’s reach, leaving Van Gaal’s Dutch critics to worry about their own team’s performance and a mathematically slim chance of progressing at Wolfsburg’s expense.
United harried PSV early on and created some clear-cut chances, with fit-again striker Anthony Martial poking a shot straight at goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet and holding midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin failing to get enough on a close-range attempt from Daley Blind’s corner.
The visitors created their first opening two minutes later, as Hendrix did well to create space in the box, before forcing David De Gea into a good stop from 12-yards out.
To the Dutchman’s credit, he never stopped trying to make things happen in the final third, they just failed to come off more often than not.
“We’ve made it hard for ourselves ahead of the last game but we’ll go to Wolfsburg with hope”.
“The result is disappointing because I think we could have finished this game several times in the first half and also in the second”, said Van Gaal.
” It’s a game we knew we were capable of winning”.
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“They want to dominate the game”. With a bit more desire they could probably have grabbed the goal that would have really ruined United’s night, though they seemed happy enough with the draw.
