United kick-started its UEFA Champions League Group B campaign with a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Mata and Chris Smalling at Old Trafford.
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Louis van Gaal has offered consolation to Ashley Young following his latest England setback by hailing the Manchester United player’s “fantastic” team ethic.
But it was not entirely convincing, with them having to come from behind after Daniel Caligiuri’s fourth-minute strike and then, following Juan Mata’s penalty and a Chris Smalling goal, hang on to their lead towards the end.
“We started well with the goal, but then we had a phase during which it became very clear that United can really cause a problem with their attackers”, German coach of the year Hecking said in his postmatch news conference. A lot of players are very exhausted because of the accumulation of a lot of matches but still, we didn’t give much away.
“Smalling had a very good match, especially defensively”.
Manchester United youngster Andreas Pereira has expressed his pleasure with the chances he has been getting at senior level and is keen to make the most of his opportunities to impress.
Further Van Gaal emphasised on the fact that his team “deserved to win” as they were more dominant than Wolfsburg.
Schneiderlin will be hoping to continue in the starting line-up when Manchester United travel to London to take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Louis van Gaal’s side are top of the Premier League and full of confidence. Only from the penalty that we got off this referee could we score.
“We have to stop the crosses and I think our chances were also at that side to attack”, he said.
“I help him with advice, also with training sessions, demands, showing images to improve him, but he has to be open and he has to perform on the pitch. You never know so I can not answer that question”, Van Gaal said.
United recovered from their opening defeat to PSV Eindhoven – a game overshadowed by Luke Shaw’s horrific leg break – to beat Wolfsburg 2-1 last night.
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“In the second-half we made a lovely goal, but after that it was not good any more“.
