English Premier League giants Manchester United’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer blasted “unforgivable” defending from his hapless side as they slumped to an embarrassing 2-1 Champions League defeat against Istanbul Basaksehir on Wednesday.
United, floundering in the lower reaches of the Premier League, started the game as firm favourites after an impressive win against Paris Saint-Germain and a 5-0 humbling of RB Leipzig in the first two games of the group stage.
But defeat in Turkey—a first-ever Champions League group-stage win for Basaksehir—heaps the pressure on the Norwegian boss, whose side looked short of inspiration and basic defensive nous in Istanbul.
The three-time European champions were badly exposed on the break as former Chelsea forward Demba Ba and Edin Visca gave the home team a two-goal cushion.
United gave themselves hope when they reduced the deficit shortly before half-time through an Anthony Martial header.
But despite multiple second-half changes and an array of attacking talent, Solskjaer’s lacklustre team could not find a way past the organised Basaksehir defence.
The result ended Manchester United’s longest away winning run in all competitions in their history — 10 straight victories—and was their first away defeat in 19 matches since losing in January at Liverpool in the Premier League.
Solskjaer said the performance against the hard-working Turkish side was not good enough.
“They scored two goals like you do in Europe when you do not defend well enough,” he told BT Sport. “The first one is that we play a short corner and forget about the man up top. That is unforgivable. The second one as well, we are not very well organised to counter the press.”
“You don’t turn up and get three points in the Champions League,” he added. “They are a team well organised and we were not good enough. That is it.”
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