The Old Trafford faithful vented their anger at Manager Jose Mourinho today, as struggling La Liga side, Sevilla dumps Manchester United out of the Champions League round of 16. The fans could not believe their eyes, as the pant-size striker, Ben Yedder’s twin strikes was more than enough to see Sevilla through for the first time in their history of the Champions League, to the quarter-final stage. If there was anything Sevilla did differently compared to the first leg in Spain, was that they converted their chances, and took their time to introduce their star striker Ben Yedder, who responded to the call to action. He could have even had a hattrick, if not for the brillance save from De Gea…or should I say for his lack of composure in front of goal…lol
Manager Jose Mourinho I am sure with this result will still be biting his nails, and the inability of his side to take advantage of the fact that they were playing a far lesser team in Sevill (no disrespect) and at home. This the fans reminded him and the players at the sound of the final whistle, with a loud echo of boos coming from the stands as he walks back to the dressing room from the pitch side.
Just like the first leg, Sevilla played and dominated from start to finish, picking little-little pockets at the United front line, while also competing strongly with United striker Lukaku who at the end could only manage a consolation goal.
Seeing the game and that of Liverpool and Chelsea, one could easily tell that United without a rhythm were fortunate to have come out with maximum points in those games. Sevilla did their homework of not allowing those long balls from goalkeeper David De Gea and Valencia to reach the head of Lukaku, which has been how they have played this season, to get results.
The introduction of Paul Pogba still did not change or have any positive impact on the game, as he looked more like someone who would have preferred to be on the Sevilla side than play for United. Congratulations to Sevilla for their win, and Questions will be asked of Jose Mourinho’s tactics…See his signings
Paul Pogba (105m euros),
Henrikh Mkhitaryan (42m euros)
Eric Bailly (38m euros),
Romelu Lukaku (84.7m euros),
Nemanja Matic (44.7m euros) and
Victor Lindelof (35m euros)