Manchester United lost another Europa League lead as their last-16 tie at Real Sociedad ended 1-1 to leave the fixture on a knife-edge going into the second leg at Old Trafford next week.
Here are three things we learned from tonight’s match.
Amorim has spilled the salt
As unremarkable as it was, there’s no doubt that for an hour or so tonight United were playing well under Ruben Amorim. His side ran the first half and looked dominant after taking the lead through Joshua Zirkzee in the second.
And just as it looked like he could relax, like perhaps his players might find a second or (whisper it) a third, the referee set off towards the monitor to check a VAR review that nobody seemed to have even noticed was happening.
Bruno Fernandes was found to have used his arm when defending a corner, and when Mikel Oyarzabal converted the penalty a sense of crushing inevitability descended, as the atmosphere in the Reale Arena exploded.
United held on for the draw, which is by no means a bad result particularly given the thumping their hosts dished out in the final 20 minutes.
But ultimately Amorim’s luck was out tonight, as his side were a whisker away from a controlled, confidence-building win which could have steadied the ship for a while. Now, they have it all to do back in Manchester next week and the inquests will begin all over again, conveniently overlooking the solid performance before the goal went in.
They CAN do it
United’s goal was football made simple – get the ball to your wide man, have him cut in and square it for an attacker to slot home. It’s a pattern as old as time, and tonight Alejandro Garnacho played the role of provider and Zirkzee duly obliged with a tidy finish to complete the move.
It’s a pattern which has been practiced and drilled, and to see something from the training ground bear fruit on the big stage was a treat for fans used to seeing their side bailed out by a moment of Bruno Fernandes brilliance or a centre-back’s header.
It’s evidence that the players have it in them to create a goal organically from open play, to seize the initiative and capitalise on pressure and control. They showed they could do it tonight, and must now show they can do it again. And again. And again.
The new normal
United went in at the interval with the game goalless and the home goalkeeper not unduly worried, and it felt good enough. It hadn’t been a thrilling half. Amorim’s side had been on top and deserved to be ahead but hadn’t been able to break the deadlock and had hardly been battering down the Sociedad door.
Neither was it a heroic defensive display, with Andre Onana between the United posts not seriously troubled once. It was an entirely vanilla half of football – and it felt like something to celebrate for the Red Devils.
Granted, tonight’s match was a knockout tie in one of Europe’s premium competitions, and away fixtures are always tough, but it feels hard to stomach that a beige first-half is now just as well-received as a one-goal lead would have been ten years ago. But the time for living in the past is well and truly over as we barrel towards a make-or-break summer which we have to hope will leave nights like tonight as a blip rather than the new normal.
Featured image Juan Manuel Serrano Arce via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
