Calamity in Copenhagen leaves Manchester United bottom of Champions League group
CONTRAST: Copenhagen's Lukas Lerager celebrates scoring. Photo credit: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.
MANCHESTER United’s ability to mine drama out of the most apparently routine situations extended to Copenhagen on Wednesday night where a Marcus Rashford first half red card ruined a two-goal display from their Danish striker Rasmus Hojlund and left them bottom of their Champions League group.
Teenage substitute Roony Bardghji scored a stunning 87th minute winner after United’s defence had given the ball away cheaply, trying to play out from the back, and the youngster latched onto Harry Maguire’s failed clearing header.
Bruno Fernandes, with a fierce, clinical 69th minute penalty, thought he had secured the win for Erik ten Hag’s ten men but, as the traumatic opening weeks of the current campaign have demonstrated, nothing will come easily for this United team.
With eight minutes remaining, and the hosts pressing, Diogo Dalot failed to spot a run from Lukas Lerager who turned in Rasmus Falk’s cross from three yards to level at 3-3.
It was vindication for Lerager who had just handled a Harry Maguire header, presenting United captain Fernandes with the spot kick which he converted to hand his side a 3-2 lead on a night of pure drama and wildly fluctuating fortunes.
Apparently comfortable with a 2-0 lead, United had lost Rashford on 42 minutes, and two goals before the interval, to leave their hopes of progressing to the Champions League knock-out stages looking desperate.
The United striker was judged by VAR to have stamped on Elias Jelert, a decision the Lithuanian referee confirmed via his touchline monitor and which, on replay, looked correct.
And thus, what looked like being a comfortable and vital victory in their bid to finish second behind runaway group leaders Bayern Munich became yet another living ordeal for ten Hag and his increasingly under-pressure squad.
A first half extended by 13 minutes, due to injury to Jonny Evans and a medical emergency in the crowd, was about to offer the manager and United two more cruel twists, starting in the 45th minute.
Former Southampton winger Mohamed Elyounoussi swept the ball in clinically from seven yards after Diogo Goncalves neatly pulled Peter Ankersen’s centre back across goal.
And in the seventh minute of first half added time, Copenhagen were level after United’s pressured defence failed to stop the ball being played to Goncalves who turned the ball onto the arm of Maguire.
It was an easy penalty decision to make and Goncalves converted it just as easily, with a nonchalant right-foot shot into the bottom left corner of Andre Onana’s goal.
In the first meeting between the two teams a fortnight ago, it was Onana’s penalty save from the last kick off the game that secured a first win in the group for ten Hag. Now they were battling for their lives.
Not that it should have been that way, after two goals from Hojlund inside the opening half hour against his former club had taken his tally for the Champions League season to five goals in four games.
The talk, if not the boasts, from Copenhagen before kick-off had centred on the white hot atmosphere United could expect at the compact Parken stadium in the Danish capital.
Just to emphasise the point, home supporters unleashed a banner proclaiming “Your theatre of nightmares” as the teams came out but, within three minutes, the myth had been exploded.
Fernandes swung a high but accurate cross-field pass to Rashford, recalled from illness as the one change to the team that won dramatically late at Fulham at the weekend.
He slipped the ball down the line to Aaron Wan-Bissaka who switched a sublime pass inside a defender for Scott McTominay whose intelligent run was rewarded with the ball at his feet and a cross which Hojlund turned in at the far post.
But little, or nothing, is easy for United in the current campaign. Inside the opening minute, ten Hag’s team had survived a hopeful penalty shout from the Danes after a McTominay clearance struck Maguire on the arm.
And, with just 12 minutes gone, starting veteran centre-half Evans went down with an injury which forced him off to be replaced by the experienced Raphael Varane, who had been expected to start the tie but had been left on the bench.
But, so far, it was a far cry from the Copenhagen performance at Old Trafford and, just as the Danes appeared to have a foothold in the game, United doubled their lead from a devastating counter-attack on 27 minutes.
Fernandes launched it again, with a run and terrific pass to Alejandro Garnacho, starting his first Champions League game for the club. The young Argentinian advanced, saw his shot saved by Kamil Grabara and Hojlund was perfectly placed to tap the rebound into an open net.
Hojlund, with a well-saved shot and an effort that rolled just wide, might have claimed a first half hat-trick but, after being reduced to ten men, United were shown a sign of things to come as Goncalves’ wicked free-kick deflected onto the bar.
Grabara 7; Ankersen 7 (Sorensen 70, 5), Vavro 6 (Boilesen 77, 5), Diks 6, Jelert 6; Lerager 6, Falk 7, Goncalves 8 (Oskarsson 70, 5); Elyounoussi 7 (Bardghji 63, 6), Claesson 7, Achouri 6 (Larsson 78, 5). Substitutes (not used) Tanlongo, Babacar, Sander, Lund, O Hojlund, Dithmer, Froholdt.
Onana 7; Wan-Bissaka 8, Maguire 5, Evans (Varane 15, 5), Dalot 4; McTominay 6, Eriksen 5 (Amrabat 45, 5); Rashford 5, Fernandes 7, Garnacho 6; R Hojlund 7 (Mount 83). Substitutes (not used) Bayindir, Lindelof, Martial, Reguilon, Antony, Heaton, Pellistri, Mejbri, Forson.
D Rumsas (Lithuania) 7.
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