Villaflor: United’s bloody loss
AN OVERTURNED offside call, an own goal and a bloodied nose.
These pretty much sum up the first leg of the 2018-2019 Champions League Quarterfinal encounter between Manchester United and FC Barcelona at Old Trafford yesterday morning.
While Tottenham got the job done at home with a 1-0 win over Manchester City, and Liverpool beat Porto 2-0 also at home, United didn’t fare as well with a 1-0 home loss.
What made United’s loss more painful is that the loss was the result of a 12th-minute own goal, which was first erroneously ruled as offiside but overtuneded by the video assistant referee (VAR).
The ball came off a Luis Suarez header and was heading out of bounds across the goal line when it bounced off a luckless Luke Shaw.
This bit of misfortune prompted the Red Devils to step on the gas and get more physical in search of an equalizer, to no avail. Even if no other goal was scored by either side, the match was highly entertaining, unless you’re a Lionel Messi fan.
Messi took a nasty elbow from defender Chris Smalling and ended up with a bloodied nose plus a black eye on the 29th minute. While blood from Messi’s nose dripped on the hallowed grounds of Old Trafford, Smalling was shown a yellow card for his efforts. Messi, though, finished the match in one piece.
Manchester United should find itself unlucky for conceding the own goal and missing at will, but the English club can also consider itself fortunate that Barcelona failed to convert its chances.
The game stats indicated that Barca had more possession of the ball -- 67 percent of the time -- but United made more attempts despite not having much of the ball at 10 shots to six.
The Catalan club, though, was on target three times while all of United’s attackers failed to hit the mark (with the exception of Smalling who landed that perfect elbow on Messi’s face).
On a positive note, the English side, despite the loss, managed to deprive the visitors of scoring more away goals. That means the Red Devils still have a real chance of pulling off a famous away win over La Liga’s sole representative in the last eight.
All eyes will be on Manchester United’s supersub coach Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer, who seems to have injected fire into the club after taking over Jose Mourinho last December.
Ever since he was wearing United’s colors as a player, Solsjkaer always had the knack of snatching a game from the jaws of defeat even at the highest level. Remember his last gasp winner against Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League Final at Camp Nou?
Two decades later, he’s doing it all over again, but now at United’s helm.
Solskjaer lost his first Champions League match as manager against PSG in the Round of 16. At home. Given up for dead, United bounced back to win 3-1 away in Parc des Princes and advanced on aggregate to face Ernesto Valverde’s Barca in the quarterfinals.
Will Solskjaer weave his supersub magic anew to silence Camp Nou in the return leg on Wednesday? Or will Valverde’s squad avenge Messi’s bloodied face with a resounding win?