Manchester United are the nation\u2019s last men standing in Europe but no-one is deluded. It\u2019s ten years since the club recorded that monumental 7-1 win against Roma in the Champions League here which Sir Alex Ferguson described as \u201cthe greatest night\u201d he\u2019d experienced in the place and left Corriere della Sera reflecting that \u201cno technical explanation holds.\u201d That all seems a distant universe now.<\/p>\n
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A left-footed strike from Marcus Rashford from a Marouane Fellaini knock-down in the game\u2019s 107th minute proved the difference, yet Jose Mourinho\u2019s quest for Champions League football through the Europa League door was a terribly tense one. It has been the week when the football of Atletico Madrid has graced these shores. You shudder to think what damage they may have wreaked, had United been on the stage they aspire.<\/p>\n
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They discover on Friday whether they will face Ajax, Celta Vigo or Lyon in the semi-final, and there is some encouragement to be taken from the matchwinner\u2019s performance. It was not a perfect display from Marcus Rashford but the quality of the finish \u2013 a drag-back and low, fractionally deflected shot \u2013 capped a night on which he showed more attacking ambition than any other player in red.<\/p>\n
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There may be more chances, given that Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked to have damaged ligaments after hyper-extending his leg after landing from an aerial challenge in the last knockings of normal time. Mourinho did not deny on Thursday night that the Swede\u2019s season may be over.<\/p>\n
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The first half was United\u2019s season in microcosm \u2013 flashing moments of great promise, none less than Henrikh Mkhitaryan\u2019s 10th minute opener \u2013 with no developing sense that their challengers would be swept aside. The Armenian\u2019s finish was clinical enough – the end product of a sweeping move down the Dutch left set in train by Paul Pogba\u2019s 30-yard ball of vision and perfect weight \u2013 but United anything but.<\/p>\n
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It was certainly a night to marvel at the silky touch and spatial awareness of Mkhitaryan, whose utter lack of emotion after the goal may have been his signal that he had heard Jose Mourinho\u2019s latest criticism of him this week and was responding.<\/p>\n
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Yet United lacked the central midfield bite of Ander Herrera, who has become the Portuguese\u2019s attack dog and was confined to the bench, while the display of Pogba was supremely frustrating. His own erratic passing was topped off by a wild strike which sailed 20 yards over.<\/p>\n
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It didn\u2019t help United\u2019s attempts to see off the Dutch that Marcos Rojo was carried off after 23 minutes with an ankle injury after his mistimed attempts to halt Frank Acheampong\u2019s progress left him in agony on the turf. But Anderlecht looked worth an equaliser and were presented with one by a poor piece of defending just beyond the half hour.<\/p>\n
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Tielemans\u2019 enterprising shot from distance was deflected off Antonio Valencia onto the United bar and, with no one clearing it, Rojo\u2019s replacement Daley Blind was left to mop up as Lukasz Teodorczky and Sofiane Hanni pounced. He was busy fretting around Teodorczky as the ball squirmed out for Hanni to strike the ball home.<\/p>\n
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United certainly had their moments after the break but the chances were spurned with wild abandon. Jesse Lingard could not connect on Luke Shaw\u2019s dangerous ball across the six yard when the chance was there. Rashford rounded goalkeeper Martinez Ruben on the breakaway but took the ball out too far from goal to cut it in. An unchallenged Zlatan Ibrahimovic side footed at the stopper from eight yards out when a chance landed at his feet and would crash wide again before 90 minutes were up. Pogba skied over the bar from two yards.<\/p>\n
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It said everything for the limited scope of United\u2019s creative ambition in a fairly pitiful second half that Marouane Fellaini arrived for Lingard on the hour and Herrera, whose presence was being demanded from the stands, remained out of the picture. It was craft that United lacked. The piece of game-changing vision was so lacking that the captain, Wayne Rooney, staring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester United are the nation’s last men standing in Europe but no-one is deluded. It’s ten years since the club recorded that monumental 7-1 win against Roma in the Champions League here which Sir Alex Ferguson described as “the greatest night” he’d experienced in the place and left Corriere della Sera reflecting that “no technical explanation holds.” That all seems a distant universe now. A left-footed strike from Marcus Rashford from a Marouane Fellaini knock-down in the game’s 107th minute proved the difference, yet Jose Mourinho’s quest for Champions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6120,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6118\/revisions\/6120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}