Remarkable Ronaldo saves De Gea and United
Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring his side's second goal
David de Gea, one of the few constants for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in this most testing of Manchester United seasons, was guilty of an individual error that left his team’s European fate hanging in the balance in Bergamo tonight.
But, thankfully for Solskjaer and his army of supporters, he can rely on Cristiano Ronaldo, the veteran who has now scored nine times in 11 games this season and five times in his four Champions League outings.
The latest of those came in the 92nd minute as a desperate last-gasp United attack ended with Mason Greenwood laying off the ball and the Portuguese volleying home from the edge of the area.
Ronaldo had come to his team’s rescue earlier, when he equalised Josip Ilicic’ opener, gifted the Italians by de Gea’s error.
But Solskjaer’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages looked to have been dented 10 minutes into the second half when Jose Luis Palomino floated a perfect long ball over Eric Bailly for Duvan Zapata to chase.
Harry Maguire sprinted across, slowly and in vain, and although Zapata’s finish was initially ruled out for offside, a lengthy VAR check confirmed that the Atalanta man was clearly onside.
Until Ronaldo’s late intervention, another poor United defensive showing had seen United fluctuate between first and third in the group and facing the prospect of exiting the competition in their next game, at Villarreal, later this month.
The weekend success at Tottenham fresh in United’s minds, there had been a positive air to their approach from kick-off and it was one which might have brought Solskjaer’s side a goal after just four minutes. In fact, Ronaldo tested Juan Musso after all of 19 seconds, unleashing a shot from 30 yards which was on target but a comfortable save for the home goalkeeper.
Then, on four minutes, a darting run by Marcus Rashford into the Atalanta area ended with Paul Pogba teeing up Scott McTominay whose shot took a wicked deflection off a defender and, with Musso wrong-footed, struck the foot of the post and rebounded to safety.
It was a stroke of bad luck which appeared even more unfortunate when Atalanta raced into the lead after 12 minutes through Ilicic.
Zapata carved it out, running off McTominay, getting ahead of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and picking out Ilicic with a perfect pass across the face of goal.
The Slovenian striker’s shot passed through the legs of Luke Shaw, and may have blocked the view of United keeper de Gea but the Spanish keeper was left to look fallible as a relatively tame shot flew through his legs and into the back of the goal.
The 3-0 win at Spurs had provided United with just their second clean sheet in 22 attempts but, early in proceedings, that target was not to be duplicated here.
With a reduced crowd of just under 15,000 baying their disapproval, VAR spent several minutes looking for a possible offside before confirming the goal although United could not be faulted for the way they initially esponded to falling behind.
Ronaldo’s cross from the right was met by Shaw whose first-time volley bounced down and looped over the goal onto the roof of the net before Pogba whipped in a cross which left Ronaldo with a little too much to do as he headed over from eight yards.
It was threatening to become the latest serious test of character for Solskjaer’s players, with Atalanta carrying a threat in the final third, as Zapata showed with a 21st minute shot that flashed wide.
Solskjaer had stuck with the five-man defensive formation that had produced such a spectacular success at Tottenham but Atalanta still sniffed weakness as a series of balls from Davide Zappacosta attempted to play strikers in behind Maguire.
Atalanta did not need a helping hand from United themselves, apparently, but still Pogba decided to give them one just after the half hour when he inexplicably dithered on the ball and gifted it to Teun Koopmeiners in the visitors’ area.
The Dutchman played in Zapata whose shot looked to be heading to the back of the United goal until Bailly made a spectacular block with his head.
Ilicic played in Zapata, for a shot blocked by Bailly yet again, moments later and United’s growing concerns extended after 38 minutes when Raphael Varane injured himself and limped off, a loss that forced United to revert to a back four.
It was the last thing Solskjaer and United needed as individual errors began to creep into their defensive play but, thankfully, at the other end they could rely on Ronaldo who scored from the first real sharp, attacking move the visitors produced on the night.
The equaliser came in first-half injury time as Ronaldo and Mason Greenwood exchanged passes that played in Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese’s back heel laid the ball off instantly and selflessly for his countryman, who battered an unstoppable finish past Musso from 10 yards.
The improvements seemed to be continuing after the restart, with a Ronaldo challenge setting up Fernandes whose shot was blocked by Palomino before Greenwood struck a post, although from a clearly offside position.
In what was rapidly becoming an entertaining game, the crucial second goal soon followed for Atalanta and the excellent Zapata might have added a third late on when his opportunistic 30-yard shot almost caught out de Gea — an escape which Ronaldo capitalised on in dramatic fashion.
Musso 6; de Roon 6, Demiral 6, Palomino 7; Zappacosta 7, Freuler 6, Koopmeiners 7, Maehle 7; Ilicic 8 (Muriel 70, 6), Pasalic 6 (Djimsiti 45, 7); Zapata 9.
De Gea 5; Wan-Bissaka 5, Bailly 8, Varane 6 (Greenwood 37, 6), Maguire 5, Shaw 7; Fernandes 7 (van de Beek 86), McTominay 6 (Sancho 86), Pogba 5 (Matic 68, 6); Rashford 6 (Cavani 68, 6), Ronaldo 9.
S Vincic (Slovenia) 8.
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