Just a simple draw
and point would been enough for Manchester United in Basel’s colossus Saint
Jakob Park, to assure their automatic pass into the knockout rounds of the Champions
League.
Still an opportune
and spoiling Michael Lang was the culprit for Jose Mourinho fumes after scoring
the lone goal of the to the delirium of the FCB followers seeing in disbelief
the feat their Bebbi performed in one of the worlds paramount of tournaments.
Coming to Basel, Manu
came with the label of all around favorites.
However, the evening
belonged to the locals push and determination to try to make it into the
knockout rounds as one of the best second place clubs and today in Saint Jakob
they deliver the ultimate of upsets.
Once again, the
specters of that loss in Basel for the Red Devils saw as a reminder that
history could repeat itself after six years past.
A chilly wake up call
for Mourinho and company as this is not an easy enterprise playing Champions
and Premiership and with today’s loss, the Red Devils aspirations see a setback
but not for this Manchester bunch poised to fight until the end.
This unfortunate wake-up call saw how a wasteful United not taking advantage of its opportunities
and penetrations so easily to the Basel defense, seeing how the posts became a
strong ally of the locals to the demise of the visitors multiple attempts.
Do not count the
locals out as these started making all sorts of intents towards the posts of
Sergio Romero taking over for David De Gea taking a rest on the eve of his
return to their match at home against Brighton, Hove and Albion on Saturday.
As the Argentinian
earned his pay of a match that became in the second half a two sided one for
both squads looking forward to make a dent to one another’s posts and a bit
disputed looking forward to the kill.
At the end his
efforts succumbed to a one two combination from Raul Petretta to Michael Lange
little could United Romero prevent in what became the lone goal of the match
and once again Basel FC playing the role of spoiler to United’s plans.
Not even the
firepower that United had with a starting eleven that included its Armada with
Lukaku, Fellaini, Pogba, Martial and Rashford making all sorts of efforts towards
the area defended successfully by Tomas Vaclik.
Nothing worked for
United ahead of Mourinho moves incorporating Matic, Ibra and Rashford that did not
incommoded the Basel fullbacks stingy approaches and at the end these persevere.
A loss that for
United sorting a tough Premiership
schedule before their December 5th match at home against a resilient
CSKA Moscow that if they would like an automatic pass into the next rounds of Champions
they need a score of 6-0 against United.
Still this would be a
sort of impossible feat for the Russian squad as Mourinho and company with a
healthy squad and many of its starters back in the roster seems a bit impossible
to consume for the Moscow Boys.
In addition, for the
Red Devils a win is much needed if these are to move on and for Mou he will need to
send his best initial eleven instead of resting his starters on the eve of the
league matches against Arsenal and Man City.
Tough indeed, that is
the next challenge for United that in this match, they should wrap it up, but
they did not, now back to the drawing boards for Jose Mourinho and company to their
next step in Champions League and go for the long eared shield.
At the end, United cannot
be wasteful in its intents to make a case in every match in league play or in
the international stages if they are to aspire for a shield or two, this squad
can do and deliver much greater accomplishments.
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