Cristiano Ronaldo on his landmark appearance scored a 95th-minute winner as Manchester United came from behind to beat Villarreal, while Benfica secured an unlikely victory over Barcelona on Wednesday in the Champions League.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner had barely threatened until he fired past Geronimo Rulli at the back post to ease the mounting pressure on United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with virtually the last kick of the game.
United were staring down the barrel of another embarrassing group stage exit from the Champions League after deservedly falling behind early in the second half to Paco Alcacer’s smart finish.
— United Goals
if you love Ronaldo! pic.twitter.com/dKyv0iESvg
(@UnitedGoals__) September 29, 2021
Alex Telles’ stunning strike quickly levelled, but a sixth draw from open play in as many meetings between the sides was on the cards until Ronaldo’s late intervention.
Despite the result, there was little in the performance to quell the growing questions as to whether Solskjaer is the man to get the best out of a squad of supremely talented individuals that are yet to click as a collective.
Bruno Fernandes’ stoppage-time penalty that ended up in the Stretford End condemned United to a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday, but Solskjaer showed his backing for the Portuguese midfielder by handing him the captain’s armband in the absence of Harry Maguire.
Luke Shaw was also missing due to injury, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka was suspended after being sent off in the 2-1 defeat to Young Boys on matchday one.
A makeshift United defence looked as such in the first half as Villarreal wasted a host of chances to inflict more misery on the Red Devils after beating them in May to win the Europa League.
Arnaut Danjuma toyed with stand-in United right-back Diogo Dalot, but the Dutch winger firstly fired straight at David de Gea and was then denied by a brilliant finger-tip stop by the Spanish goalkeeper.
De Gea was the fall guy in the Europa League final as he was the only player of the 22 on both sides to fail to score in a marathon penalty shootout.
Barcelona humiliated
Barcelona suffered a second straight 3-0 loss in the Champions League group stage as they were well beaten by Benfica in Lisbon.
A hammering in Lisbon, which saw Darwin Nunez score twice, including a second-half penalty, also delivered another heavy blow to Ronald Koeman’s hopes of staying on as Barca coach.
Nunez’s double and a smart finish from Rafa Silva consigned Koeman’s team to a second consecutive 3-0 loss in Group E, after they were thrashed by the same scoreline at the hands of Bayern Munich earlier this month.
Koeman’s tactics will again come under scrutiny, with Gerard Pique substituted after just 33 minutes, seemingly to avoid picking up another yellow card, only for Eric Garcia to be sent off late on for a second booking.
Frenkie de Jong, Barcelona’s most creative player for the first half an hour, was also shifted into central defence to replace the departing Pique.
It is the first time since 2000 that Barcelona have lost back-to-back group games in the Champions League, which was also the last time the club failed to make the tournament’s knock-out stage.
They have a mountain to climb now to avoid the same fate, sitting bottom of the table, with Benfica four points ahead in second and a crunch game at home to Dynamo Kiev to come next month.
Whether Koeman is still in charge for that game remains to be seen given his future is not even secure for this weekend, when Barcelona play at Spanish champions Atletico Madrid in La Liga.
The club might view the upcoming international break as the more logical time to make a change but despite Koeman’s pleas for support, and perspective, his team have now won only one of their last five games and it appears a matter of when, not if.
from SAMAA https://ift.tt/3ATIbc5
No comments:
Post a Comment