Manchester United deserved to lose
FC Sevilla 0-0 Manchester United. On paper Manchester United seem superior to FC Sevilla but on the pitch the Spaniard badly dominated a pale English side. De Gea saved his club on several occasions whereas Manchester United offensive style stayed in the locker room.
This was not great football and a win for Sevilla would have been more than logical. Their domination was strong from start to finish. The tie is now wide opened with the second leg in three weeks time. Man Utd will have to play a much better football if they want to advance onto the next round.
Mourinho came with a very defensive mindset
The Portuguese coach was very satisfied after the draw and praised his goalkeeper:
“I think the clean sheets are because of the team and because of David [De Gea]. But, we also kept a few clean sheets with [Sergio] Romero in goal, so I think the team even with a couple of mistakes, the team defended well and when we made the mistakes, obviously David was there. And that’s the reason why he is what he is.
I think the only moment where we felt relieved was in the last couple of minutes in the first half, when there were a couple of our mistakes in possession and they had a couple of good situations with two David great saves and that gave this fantastic stadium the emotion that normally they have for 90 minutes. Apart from that, I was never relieved. The game was even.
The stats are what it is. Sometimes you have 15 shots, but 13 of them were what I call ‘statistic shots’, so I really feel that the result reflects what the game was. You ask me, ‘is it a good result?’. I say, it’s not good, it’s not bad. We have two legs to play and we have one match to decide everything at Old Trafford. For sure, Old Trafford misses knockout Champions League. Yes, last season we had Europa League knockout, which obviously is not the same. In previous years, I think we were out in the group phase, so I think Old Trafford is a big Champions League night we want to have.”
