Lyon 2

Man Utd 2

We could (and probably should) have lost this match but we were so close to winning it that at the end most United supporters must have felt dejected. I did! Under normal circumstances, snatching a goal on the counter on 88 minutes should see you through but this season has nothing normal in it, this team does not play we expect it to play, and it not normal to witness United playing with practically no keeper and no striker! And I am not going to beat around the bush here, anyone with even the slightest dose of objectivity knows that Nemanja Matic was right in his assessment of Onana. Slightly unethical…maybe, brutal…surely, right…absolutely!

And if Nemanja just wanted to add pressure on the already dodgy keeper that plays for United, he succeeded (although in my opinion it was not really needed). I do not normally enjoy slanting individual players but there is no hiding for Onana – another two mistakes and these could, once again as happened last season, see United being sent crashing out of European football. Winning away 2-1 is a completely different context to drawing 2-2 – the pressure is now on us to win – it would have been the other way round had Onana not (yet again) broken one of the fundamental rules in the goalkeepers manual – DO NOT DROP THE BALL IN THE DANGER ZONE – PUSH IT SIDEWAYS! Apologies for shouting.

Lyon had in fact taken the lead thanks to another mistake by the quasi-keeper – he’s done this before, misreading the trajectory of the ball, letting it bounce, and then get beaten by the bounce! On 25 minutes we were 0-1 down in a match which we were handling reasonably well. Yoro equalized on the stroke of HT with an instinctive header inside the box. Perfect timing, we said to each other at the MUSC Malta – let’s hope we show up for the second half and get a result!

As the second half progressed with not much quality football on display, and the match seemingly heading for a 1-1 draw, Bruno pulled out an exquisite cross from his unique (no other player in the United squad has this) creativity hat and Zirkzee headed home. A 2-1 away win in France was all there for the taking – we only had to hold on for just over 7 minutes. OK, this team is not capable of managing matches, and one could argue that the shot should not have been allowed to come in. Others will argue that is was a powerful shot…but bloody hell, you spend all week training at blocking shots from players and I am sure some of them shots are not passes – push it to the fricking side!!

I have honestly had enough of this keeper and if Amorim is going to stand by him, it will be his downfall. Amorim should find the courage to drop the likes of Onana, Hojlund and I would add Dalot as well (some will of course disagree).

I’m hoping that OT crowd will push this United side into the semis of the Europa League – we need a win and let us hope it does not go down to extra time and penalties…Numquam Moribimur!