UEFA Champions League 2020-21 Matchday 6
Manchester United lost 3-2 at RB Leipzig and is out of the Champions League. The Mancunians are transferred to the Europa League where they lost in the semifinals last year.
Once again Man United showed they cannot be trusted. Solid over the first couple games in the competition, the Red Devils beat PSG and Leipzig in the first two games of the group stage, they let go the last two matches letting each opponent score three goals on them (3-1 vs PSG and 3-2 today).
Terrible start
The game was sealed in the first 15 minutes when Man United’s players found themselves in a 2-0 hole (2′ and 13′). At the 69th minute, Kluivert (son of the Ajax’s legend Patrick Kluivert) gave the final touch. Man United was down 3-0. Then Paul Pogba came into the game and the team started to play better scoring two goals in the last 10 minutes and they had the chance to level but came close ultimately.
You have to wonder why United coach Solskjaer does not play the World Cup champion more!! Sure thing, Pogba has not been consistent but also he can be a X factor. On several occasions he showed he deserves more playing time. Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain could be trying to lure over the winter break…
Will Solskjaer finish 2020 at the helm of Man United?
Coach Solskjaer on the loss:
“Close at the end, but you can’t expect to go through when you go three goals down against a good team like Leipzig. I can’t fault the character and effort and pressure that we put on them all second half, where we deserved more almost. But you can’t give a team a three-goal lead and expect to come back. Just too late, unlucky towards the end.
Of course you can’t say that we were good enough, we weren’t good enough, in a difficult group of course. We started really well, in this group and obviously the big turning point or the big defeat for us was the one away to Istanbul.
That’s the one that you look back and think that’s where we lost the points that we should have had. Today we were close, but we knew we had to defend crosses, we knew we had to defend balls in the box and we just couldn’t clear them.”
PSG and Leipzig qualified
The German team qualified for the knockout stage yet again. They were eliminated by PSG in the semifinal 3-0 in August. In Paris, the match between PSG and Basaksehir was interrupted after 20 minutes.
The 4th referee used an unacceptable and discriminating racial language towards Demba Ba, member of the Istanbul coaching staff. This reminds us racism is everywhere and, alike coronavirus, must be eliminated.
[…] in the last 5 matches, Man United can sit at the table along side Liverpool. Indeed, following the early exit from the Champions League in December 2020, United bounced back admirably. In less that two weeks, […]
[…] in the last 5 matches, Man United can sit at the table along side Liverpool. Indeed, following the early exit from the Champions League in December 2020, United bounced back admirably. In less that two weeks, […]