Breaking into the top four is the only way of qualifying for next season’s Champions League now open United following their exit from the Europa League last Thursday.
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Van Gaal admitted in the build-up to Sunday’s match that defeat would all but extinguish their Champions League hopes, but his side produced a manful display to close the gap on misfiring City.
Manchester United’s elimination from Europe will help the club, says coach Louis van Gaal after their hard-earned 1-0 away win over rivals Manchester City.
Praising his players for the performance at City’s Etihad Stadium, Van Gaal said, “I’m very happy. It is interesting now [the race for fourth] but we have to take it game by game, get our recovery, get our rest and go again”.
He said on Super Sunday: “This is a team who even last season we talked about as being a great team, with four or five world class players, who were just coming over the hill”. “We are here to talk about the game with Manchester United today”, he said. “I thought we were fantastic”. “It’s better to look ahead, try to win as many games as we can and have the feeling we have right now after every match”.
Van Gaal’s comments came in response to a question about United targeting City’s injury-hit defence.
On the derby win, Spanish playmaker Mata added: “In the second half we has some good minutes but at the end, as we expected, City pushed hard trying to level the score”.
Rashford was also denied a first-half penalty when Demichelis barged him to the ground in the area.
“I don’t think that a muscle injury you can be fit in one week”.
“It’s also dependent on the opponent and the game plan but I think Jesse is more of a midfielder than a right winger”. We dominated the game.
Pep Guardiola reportedly does not have an escape clause if Manchester City finish outside the Champions League places this season. Sometimes it takes just a touch of youthful, untamed pace and panache to quite transform the feeling in a football changing room.
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“When a team is 1-0 down they are always going to go for the draw so we had to sit back, we had to defend, the lads stayed concentrated and we did our jobs”.
