KING POWER STADIUM — Somehow, Manchester United did it. Paul Pogba’s not been good enough. Harry Maguire’s an £80m fraud. Anthony Martial isn’t a striker. Marcus Rashford doesn’t score enough. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is out of his depth. And these are some of the criticisms levelled at them by their own fans.
One thing Solskjaer does know about, however, is leaving it late, scorer of one the great late goals to earn United the Treble in 1999, and they left it late this season. They rose up the table after signing Bruno Fernandes for £47m in January and met Leicester City on the way down on the Premier League’s final day to secure the result needed for Champions League qualification.
Even against Leicester on Sunday they were outplayed by Brendan Rodgers’s side, winning a 14th penalty of the season – a Premier League record – fittingly converted by Fernandes and gifted a stoppage-time second by Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
United have fluffed two semi-finals this season – swept aside by Manchester City in the EFL Cup and limply succumbing to Chelsea in the FA Cup – and there were questions as to whether they had the bottle to see it through in the league.
In the end, Leicester sort of did it for them, failing to convert a series of decent chances – 14 shots at David De Gea’s goal but only three on target. Leicester gave away the penalty when Martial slipped between Wes Morgan and Jonny Evans and the defenders took him down simultaneously (VAR ruled it a foul by Evans). In the eighth minute of stoppage time, Schmeichel tried to dribble past Jesse Lingard, who tackled him and scored into an empty net – his first Premier League goal for 19 months.
It was indicative of a strange afternoon full of “As It Stands Day” nerves on both sides.
After 15 minutes Nemanja Matic gave the ball away on the edge of United’s penalty area and Leicester should have punished the mistake but Wilfred Ndidi fired over the crossbar. Seconds later, United defender Victor Lindelof passed the ball straight off the pitch.
Leicester’s Kelechi Iheanacho controlled a throw-in off the pitch. Later, Leicester counter-attacked and the forward brushed off Pogba on halfway, had options left and right but went for goal. The shot scuffed. De Gea dived and fumbled – was that nerves or merely how De Gea plays now? The loose ball was up for grabs and Jamie Vardy went in hard. De Gea blocked. An argument broke out between striker and goalkeeper.
It did not make for the most entertaining of matches, although everyone was woken up by Solskjaer’s booming shout of “Hey! Bruno!”, when Fernandes would not stop complaining about a hefty challenge by James Justin.
Leicester’s task was made crystal clear at half-time with Chelsea 2-0 up against Wolves: they had to win to claim a top-four place. They continued to push and press. They hit the top of the top right corner, Youri Tielemans’s near-post free-kick looped on there by Vardy’s head.
They fell behind following a rare United attack. They pushed and pressed some more.
“All in!” Schmeichel screamed at his team-mates. Somewhere in the stands, the injured James Maddison’s ears pricked up.
Evans was sent off in stoppage time for sending studs into Scott McTominay’s ankle. Schmeichel’s mistake ended any doubt.
Somehow, a Champions League spot which had seemed a dead cert for Leicester before lockdown was not to be.
At one stage, Manchester United were 14 points behind Leicester. They finished four points above them, ahead of Chelsea on goal difference to squeeze into third. Who would have thought it?
All the criticisms levelled at them could, flipped upside down, give much cause for hope.
Pogba, one of the world’s best midfielders in there somewhere. Maguire, still arguably England’s finest centre-back. Martial and Rashford have scored 50 goals between them.
They could have had few better additions than teenager Mason Greenwood and new signing Fernandes.
They reached two semi-finals and qualified for the Champions League and are still in the Europa League.
A place in the top four is worth more than £100m and it will give Manchester United the extra spending power to push on.
Somehow, United look like they could be a serious contender in English football once more.
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