Manchester United’s pursuit of qualification to the knockout stages of the Champions League will go down to the wire after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side fell to a 3-1 loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
Goals from Neymar and Marcus Rashford had the score level at the break, but shortly after Marquinhos put PSG ahead midway through the second half, Fred was shown a second yellow card. United threw everything they had at PSG, but Neymar’s stoppage-time strike ensured no comeback was to be made.
Here’s what Solskjaer had to say after the game.
“I think you look back at that game and the chances we created and you feel we deserve to go through,” he said (via the club’s official website). “But you need to be more clinical, you need to take your chances, definitely.
“But you’ve got to say the boys did create those moments and chances, that’s the big positive. We should have been more clinical, of course, we know that. More quality with the finish and then you’re celebrating. But that’s football. It’s always decided in the boxes with that quality. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes against you and definitely tonight it went against us. We didn’t deserve to lose.”
Midfielder Fred was fortunate to stay on the pitch during the first half after he was caught pushing his head towards Leandro Paredes, whom he also appeared to tread on in a separate incident. He was only given a yellow card for the headbutt, but was eventually dismissed when he picked up a very soft yellow later in the game for a tackle on Ander Herrera.
“That’s not a yellow card, we know that. The referee, when he sees it, he knows he’s made a mistake. That’s something that sometimes happens. You can’t do anything about it unfortunately, but it was a clear and obvious error. Very frustrating. [It’s] a clean challenge, a fair challenge.
“He played really well. Fred is so energetic out there. He’ll hold his hands up and say sorry, but you can’t be sorry for winning the ball, can you?”
“Yeah [I did consider it],” he added (via The Guardian). “Fred has played really well. We spoke about staying calm and on your feet [at the break]. The second yellow card was nowhere near a foul. Ander knows that. Fred shouldn’t put his head towards Paredes but I don’t think he touched him. He was a bit lucky to stay on.
“Fred played really disciplined in the second half and when he makes a tackle like this you can’t really fault the boy. But after the decision the ref made you maybe look back and say you should have [taken him off]. The referee made a mistake there but that’s allowed. Fred knows he shouldn’t put his head towards someone even though he doesn’t touch him.”
A visibly uncomfortable Rashford made his way directly down the tunnel when he was forced off the pitch midway through the second half, suffering what appeared to be a shoulder injury.
“It’s just niggling him, that shoulder injury. Let’s see how quickly he can recover. Let’s hope he can be ready for the West Ham game. But we don’t know.”
ℹ️ Group H…
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— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) December 2, 2020
United will travel to Leizpig on Tuesday in need of a point to ensure they qualify for the next round of the Champions League.
“We go into a game of football wanting to win it. I think these games against PSG and Leipzig at home have showed how much we’ve developed. I think the team has developed in these types of games and it’s just about some finishing today and we’d be smiling.“
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