It was another dramatic night in the Europa League Round of 16 when AC Milan’s Simon Kjaer scored in stoppage time to cancel out Amad Diallo‘s goal for Manchester United and force a 1-1 draw. This result now puts Manchester United under unwanted pressure for the second-leg of this Europa League Clash.
Both the teams were plagued by injuries. Manchester United was missing Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani, Paul Pogba, and Donny van de Beek. While AC Milan was without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hakan Calhanoglu, Mario Mandzukic, and Theo Hernandez.
Here are the main talking points.
Lights, Camera, Amad!
For Manchester United, the night belonged to the young and exciting Amad. His spinning, back-to-goal, looping header over AC Milan’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was the dream start every fan was hoping for. Amad replaced Martial who wobbled off injured and justified his selection. At 18 and 243 days he became Manchester United’s fourth-youngest European goalscorer. With Ole’s trust in him, the future looks really bright for Amad at Manchester United.
Manchester United and Bruno Fernandes: The Love Story Continues
Who said Bruno switches off in the big games? He proved his haters wrong again when he played a sumptuous ball for Amad to score a great goal. In truth, Bruno Fernandes did not have the best game for Manchester United, there was a lot that was left desired from his gameplay. But here’s the thing about great players, it only takes that one moment of magic to break the shackles. Amad’s movement demanded that Bruno find him with his pass, and Bruno did and in what fashion. This is Bruno Fernandes’ season and no one can stop him.
Bruno Fernandes for Manchester Utd this season:
- 42 games 👕
- 23 goals ⚽️
- 13 assists 🚀
It’s a VAR thing!
It was another night where VAR was under scrutiny. Milan had two goals rightly rules out by VAR in the first-half.
AC Milan had the ball in United’s net just after just five minutes when Rafael Leao put his shot past Dean Henderson. But the Portuguese was clearly offside and the goal was disallowed.
After 11 minutes Franck Kessie controlled a throw-in and then smashed a half-volley past Dean Henderson. After a lengthy VAR goal-check and it was ruled out for handball. You could argue the decision was a bit harsh but things did work out in United’s favor.
One thing is for certain, VAR keeps things interesting.
Manchester United and an episode of ‘How did Harry Maguire miss that?’
The highlight of United’s first half was an unexplainable miss from Harry Maguire from point-blank range. From an Alex Telles corner, he timed his run at the far-post to perfection as he arrived, unmarked, to meet Fernandes‘ flick-on, only to horribly miss the open goal.
You could argue it was one of the ‘misses of the season’ for United and very well did cost United the match against Milan. Come on Harry, get it together.
Next Round and some Manchester United stats
- When not winning the first leg at home, Manchester United has crashed out in the last six of their eight ties in European competitions. Most recently against Barcelona in the 2018-19 Champions League.
- AC Milan’s equalizer ended a run of 503 minutes in which Manchester United hadn’t conceded in all competitions.
- It took far longer than it should have but Eric Bailly finally played his 100th game for Manchester United against AC Milan.
- Amad Diallo became the youngest non-British player to score for United in a major European competition (at 18 years & 243 days), netting with his first-ever shot for the Red Devils.
- Bruno Fernandes has been involved in more goals in all competitions than any other Premier League player since his United debut (56), scoring 35 and assisting 21.
