Man Utd 0
Man City 0
To a certain extent, I should have anticipated this result, but contrary to popular belief, I am not an eternal pessimist. I did, in fact, have a strong feeling that we would not lose this derby and a small part of me believed that we could win. This is where the reality check comes up. Hojlund leading our attack and a misfiring Garnacho puts all the pressure on Bruno to come up with the goals and despite a man of the match performance, this was not possible today.
Onana had a couple of run-of-the-mill saves and the same could be said of the Citeh keeper. And yet the match started with a lot of promise as within a minute or so Garnacho was sent through on the Citeh goal and he was brought down…PENALTY, we all shouted at the Gozo MUSC where I watched this one, but replies showed that the ref was right – it was just outside the box.
The first half drifted without too much happening. We had the best chances but it was a drab affair overall. Second half was pretty much the same and it was, once again, clearly obvious that we lack a quality striker to win this match (and many other this season). And the match was pretty much there to be won as this Citeh side is not really there this season and Pep probably picked the wrong formation. You could actually see this throughout the match so in my book this will go down as 2 points lost.
Many supporters would argue that our focus is on the Europa league and there is some sense in this but a little bit of quality today would have got us 3 points today. Dorgu and Dalot seem to be doing well – not good enough in my opinion. Garnacho again did not deliver and was getting decisions wrong most of the match, and he is frustrating to watch at times as we expect so much more from him. I am still of the opinion that Obi should have more minutes.
Let us hope that we can really turn up on Thursday and give ourselves a chance for the second leg a week later. Our entire season rests on this 2-legged QF vs Lyon and the rest of the Europa League campaign…Numquam Moribimur!
