Porto 3-3 Manchester United (Pepe 27′, Omorodion 34′, 50’| Rashford 7′, Hojlund 20′, Maguire 90+1)
ESTADIO DO DRAGAO — Time’s up, Erik. If Roy Keane had his way, he wouldn’t even be allowed on the plane home after this.
To throw away a two-goal lead and not win a match once can be forgiven, passed off as an aberration you won’t let happen again.
Astonishingly for England’s most successful club, since Erik ten Hag joined in 2022 no Premier League club have conceded three or more goals more times in all competitions than United.
Read that again – any current Premier League club. There is fundamentally something psychologically fragile about Manchester United. Only one man is to blame for that.
With effectively two games to save his job, Ten Hag needed a convincing victory in Porto to win over the growing, increasingly vitriolic army of naysayers. It started so well, 2-0 up inside 20 minutes, before his vulnerable shirkers capitulated in a circus-like manner only they can.
Harry Maguire’s stoppage time header did snatch a late point, but that is not enough, such is the pressure on the Dutchman.
Bruno Fernandes’ red card only added to the woe. A battling point is how Ten Hag will bill this, but even those who back him are not that naïve.
In thick mist on the banks of the River Douro, United fans were in fine voice pre-match, determined to forget the predicament their team find themselves in. Such is the desperation, several groups of supporters were overheard pining for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to return – things really are that bad.
What those bewildered supporters needed was an early goal, all the more sweeter given it came via the boot of a player in desperate need of a lift.
When Marcus Rashford picked the ball up on the left flank he had very little on, so simply drove through a gaping hole between two Porto defenders before squeezing a low strike underneath stopper Diogo Costa.
Perhaps Ten Hag had sent the heavies round to rough Costa up in the night, as he was at fault again to put United further in command as Rasmus Hojlund, on his first start of the season made it two, again through Costa.
Home and dry? Comfortable victories are not really United’s thing under Ten Hag, especially in Europe. But they were, at this point, in total command.
To let it slip once more is inexcusable. Superstar footballers need to be given the belief by their bosses that they have the ability and knowhow to see out wins.
Not this one. In the blink of an eye, Porto had two in two minutes to level proceedings as English football’s perennial bucklers did it again.
Pepe nudged home from close range after a sluggish Matthijs de Ligt was slow to react to Andre Onana’s save, before goal-machine Samu Omorodion, who almost became Chelsea’ eight-choice striker in the summer, headed a quick-fire second.
Rapid capitulation is a trend which has really brought the Ten Hag project to its knees. Just in Europe since the start of last season, United have conceded two goals in four minutes at Bayern Munich, two in 10 mins at home to Galatasaray, two in four minutes at Copenhagen, two in nine minutes at Galatasaray and now two in seven minutes versus Porto.
Omorodion sensed blood, and with De Ligt seeing stars, surprise starter Casemiro struggling to keep up and Lisandro Martinez all at sea, the Porto hitman stole the march on his marker and hammered home the third early in the second half.
There were wild celebrations as Maguire stepped off the bench to deny Porto victory, but in the cold light of day, another bin-fire at the circus not what Ten Hag needed. Aston Villa are primed to file that final nail in the coffin on Sunday.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/S5ClbyU
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