Netherlands winger Memphis Depay gave United the lead in the 37th with his first goal in 2016, before Pione Sisto equalized with a low, slightly deflected shot after pouncing on Michael Carrick’s poor pass in midfield.
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In the game itself, the Red Devils were undone in the 77th minute by a goal from Paul Onuachu.
Louis van Gaal had described winning the Europa League as the club’s “best route” back into the Champions League but, after Thursday’s display, fans won’t be booking their flights to Basel for the final just yet.
The Manchester United fans were the first to admit they were not at their best and they were heard chanting “we are f****** s***”. They can do it. When you see the second half, maybe they are right, but we have to improve and then those fans will support us again. “You cannot afford a second goal, but we could have scored also, Jesse Lingard had two remarkable chances, so it is the law of Murphy I think”.
“I think that, in certain phases, we were not very well organised”.
“I have explained that we have to cope with this list of 14 injured players, and that’s not easy. With a performance and a result like that we’re going home very disappointed”. It’s just not good enough, we haven’t played well enough, we didn’t kick on after we scored.
The visitors lost their second consecutive match to leave their Europa League hopes hanging by a thread ahead of the second leg at Old Trafford next Thursday. “We had a lot of unnecessary losses of the ball”.
United boss Louis van Gaal subsequently admitted when asked about the criticism: “Maybe they are right”.
The hosts showed no signs of being rusty despite this being their first competitive game in two months and they gave as good as they got in the opening exchanges.
It means players’ basic salaries will be dramatically cut if United fail to win the Europa League or finish the Premier League season outside the top four – plus the prospect of lucrative bonuses would also be off the agenda.
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But Carrick stressed: “You can talk about injuries but, irrespective of that, we can’t make any excuses”. The only positive is that we have an away goal and the second leg next week.
