A stony faced Louis van Gaal has a faraway look in his eyes, as though he’s not able to quite comprehend just how badly life at Manchester United is turning out for him. Credit to Midtjylland, who have just secured the biggest victory in their history. The Danish champions played well, reacting impressively to going a goal down, and they have every reason to be confident going into next week’s second leg at Old Trafford. It’s worth remembering, though, that they lost 9-1 on aggregate to Napoli in the group, haven’t played in two months and were on a run of one win in 10 matches before the winter break, and it is not wrong for us to expect so much more than this from United. A 2-1 defeat means that they are still in a good position in a tie, Memphis Depay’s away goal a positive on a night of countless negatives, but the unfortunate truth for Van Gaal is that he is currently overseeing a shambles at one of the biggest clubs in the world. How long can this continue? I fancy that there’s going to be a lot of soul-searching on the flight home from Denmark tonight. Thanks for reading and emailing. Bye.
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Full-time: Midtjylland 2-1 Manchester United
Now there’s a scoreline that grabs your attention.
90 min+4: Sisto hits the wall with his free-kick. But it doesn’t matter.
90 min+3: Martial is brilliantly tackled by Royer, who charges away with the ball down the right. Eventually he turns and plays a cute pass through to Urena, who’s clipped from behind by Smalling, just outside the area on the right. Smalling is booked and this is a good chance for Midtjylland to score a third.
90 min+2: Lingard’s hopeful, rather tame effort is blocked by Sparv. “Onuachu might be firing up his webcam for an upcoming YouTube Come Get Me Plea to a Premier League club,” says Jeremy Dresner. “Sounds like he’s worth it no?” He has been impressive.
90 min: Lingard’s shot from 25 yards is deflected wide. United have mustered some late pressure and McNair’s cross from the right is deflected wide for a corner. Pereira takes it and Carrick heads over at the near post. There will be four minutes of added time.
88 min: A moment that encapsulates United’s night, Lingard letting a pass from Pereira bobble over his foot and out for a throw. Dearie me.
85 min: Midtjylland are bending United over the knee at the moment. They are running rings around them, playing keepball and taking the mickey, flaunting their dominance. Lingard is booked for a frustrated foul on Onuachu. Daniel Royer comes on for Kadlec.
82 min: Is this going to be an even darker night for United than the 1-0 defeat to Lille in 2005, when the travelling fans vented their fury at several players and chanted in support of Roy Keane, who was on the naughty step at the time after that MUTV interview?
81 min: The outstanding Sisto skitters into the area from the right and whistles one over the bar. There’s another goal in this for Midtjylland. United are rocking.
78 min: Juan Mata’s punishment for that pathetic attempt at a challenge is to be replaced by Andreas Pereira. “I remember when Man Utd used to be feared, even before a ball had been kicked, now teams must look at us and think ‘with a little bit of effort this should be easy’,” says Ryan Huckstep. “Yes we’ve got injuries but there’s no spirit in the team, I think that more than anything else is what has lacked since Sir Fergie left the touchline!”
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GOAL! Midtjylland 2-1 Manchester United (Onuachu, 77 min)
Midtjylland mount yet another attack and the ball is sprayed out to the excellent substitute, Onuachu, just outside the United area on the left. The chance looks to have gone when he treads on the ball, but he’s persistent enough to win a challenge with the feeble Juan Mata, before driving a low shot past the despairing Romero and inside the right post. Midtjylland deserve this and so do the terrible Manchester United.
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75 min: United do not look like scoring. All that money they’ve spent.
72 min: Morgan Schneiderlin replaces the disappointing Ander Herrera.
71 min: United grant Midtjylland too much space in the middle. Olsson slips a pass through to Kadlec, who rushes a shot high and wide under pressure from Smalling. Schneiderling is going to come on soon.
70 min: Urena skedaddles through the middle this time, but his attempted pass through to Kadlec is too strong. But United are looking increasingly vulnerable.
68 min: United have made so many mistakes in the middle. Herrera is the latest culprit, losing the ball too easily, and Midtjylland are able to counter. Onuacha rumbles through the middle and United are utterly exposed. He shifts it to the right to the other other substitute, Urena, but he’s held up. He does manage to spray it to Sisto on the left, though, and he curls one wide from 20 yards.
67 min: Marco Urena replaces Rilwan Hassan. Midtjylland have one change left.
66 min: What is United’s worst European performance?
62 min: Olsson springs down the right and hoicks a teasing cross into the middle. United are caught all at sea and Onuachu meets the delivery with a bullet header towards the top corner. He must think he’s scored with his first touch, only for Romero to make his second excellent save of the night, diving to his left to claw the ball out and then making sure that there was no further danger by bravely smothering the rebound.
61 min: Martin Pusic makes way for Paul Onuachu.
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60 min: Novak needs some treatment after being clattered by Love, who’s shown a yellow card.
58 min: Neat build-up play from United ends with Herrera whistling one well wide from 20 yards.
56 min: United are pushing hard for a second goal now. Herrera dinks a cross to the far post from the left and Lingard meets it with a controlled, sidefooted volley that clangs away off the face of the bar! “Maybe Trevor Francis is just lining up a second half denouement in which he reveals the football equivalent of cricket’s Simpson’s Paradox, namely that despite most of their players being younger than their Man United counterparts, the average age of the FC Midtjylland team is actually greater than that of the Premiership team?” says Simon McMahon.
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53 min: Another stray pass, this time from Herrera, sets up a Midtjylland attack. But this time, Sisto’s shot is straight at Romero. United break, Depay making headway on the left. He shimmies inside and swings a cross into the middle, where Juan Mata is all on his own in the six-yard box. Unfortunately for United, it turns out he’s not Spain’s answer to Duncan Ferguson. His header is woeful.
50 min: Depay dribbles down the left, turning inside and then out again, but his cross is poor. Then Herrera tries to slide Blind in, but puts too much weight on the pass and the ball rolls behind for a goal-kick.
48 min: Sisco sets Martial away with a slack pass on the left. The United forward hares down the flank and although Sisto tries to atone for his error, he’s left on his backside by a tremendous piece of skill from Martial. He could go on, but instead he tees up Lingard, who blazes over from 18 yards.
46 min: The referee blows his whistle to signal the start of the second half and then he blows it again, spotting that United haven’t taken the kick-off incorrectly, failing to knock the ball forward. Oh dear. Another low. At least they get it right at the second time of asking. “Not that I’m taking pleasure in this (which is a modest way of saying I’m taking pleasure in this), but would losing to a team in the first knockout round of Big Vase, a team I will happily wager no more than 2% of the readers of this MBM could have identified two weeks ago, be the absolute nadir for United?” says Hubert O’Hearn. “You’d really have to think, lose here and even if United went on a 12 game winning streak in the League, this would be the end for Van Gaal. “
Half-time: Midtjylland 1-1 Manchester United
Another gift from United, the ball knocked straight to Hassan, whose shot from the edge of area takes a deflection and swings wide for a corner on the left. But once United deal with it, that’s the cue for the referee to bring the first half to a close. United will be very annoyed they aren’t heading back to the dressing room with a 1-0 lead.
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GOAL! Midtjylland 1-1 Manchester United (Sisto, 44 min)
Midtjylland reinsert their stuffing. Michael Carrick cheaply concedes possession inside United’s half and Sisto makes off with the ball, the exciting little forward darting through the middle and leading the visiting defence on a merry song and dance. He swerves right, opening up space with an electric burst of pace, and when he shoots from 18 yards, his shot nips off Smalling and flies inside Romero’s near post!
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43 min: Midtjylland have barely had a touch since Depay’s goal. They need to reinsert their stuffing.
39 min: All Kadlec had to do was pass it to Hassan. He had an open goal!
GOAL! Midtjylland 0-1 Manchester United (Depay, 37 min)
Fifty-six seconds after Kadlec spared Manchester United’s blushes, the visitors take the lead through Memphis Depay. A burst from Jesse Lingard on the right carved out the space and his low cross into the middle caused confusion in the Midtjylland defence, allowing Depay to collect six yards from goal and bundle the ball past Andersen! What a mess that was from a defensive point of view.
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36 min: A free-kick to United on the left, Sparv catching Depay with his studs. Depay dusts himself down and stands over the free-kick in discussion with Mata, who runs over the ball and leaves it to the Dutchman, whose wobbling effort is pushed away at his near post by Andersen. From there, Midtjylland break and incredibly Kadlec has a free run at goal from the halfway line. Where have the United defenders gone? They’re nowhere to be seen - but Kadlec ignores Hassan to his right and goes for goal himself, only to aim his effort straight at Romero, who saves easily! If he’d passed it, Hassan would have had an open goal. And that’s a costly decision, because...
34 min: United knock the ball around with a hint of urgency on the left, before Blind clips a cross towards the far post. It’s missed by Bodurov, but Martial makes a piping hot mess of his header, when he really should have scored, and the ball is bustled away again.
31 min: Depay knocks a pass out for a goal-kick. This is bilge.
28 min: Mata sprays a straightforward pass out for a throw. This was the best side in Europe in 2008.
24 min: Martial rolls the ball under his foot on the left, taunting his markers, and then he suddenly puts his foot on the accelerator and burns into the area, before falling under a challenge from Hansen. He wants a penalty, but the referee decides that he’s just overrun the ball and awards a goal-kick. Van Gaal is furious.
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21 min: Blind swings the corner to the far post, where Smalling peels round the back and curiously decides to head the ball back across goal when he had a free header a couple of yards out. None of his team-mates are expecting him to do that and Midtjylland are able to boot the ball away.
20 min: Martial spins brilliantly on the right of the area, turnign and aiming a shot towards the far corner. It’s blocked and the ball diverts to Lingard, whose cross is hacked behind by Sparv.
18 min: “I’m always interested in the average age of teams,” BT Sport’s Trevor Francis says, before exclusively revealing that every outfield Midtjylland player is in his 20s. He neglects to mention their average age.
15 min: Depay’s confidence is shot at the moment. He’s just tried to burst past Romer. Instead he runs straight into him, pulls him back and concedes a free-kick.
13 min: United conceded twice from set-pieces when they were dumped out of the Champions League by Wolfsburg and both of Sunderland’s goals on Saturday came from dead balls. It’s an obvious weakness at the moment.
11 min: A long throw down the line. Smalling heads it behind for a corner on the right. The volume rises by a couple of notches and grows even louder as Hansen gets the jump on Blind and meets the corner with a downward header that looks certain to beat Romero, only for United’s stand-in goalkeeper to show wonderful reflexes and athleticism to dive low to his left and tip the ball away, before Carrick hacks it off the line! What a save!
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8 min: United break at speed, a rare sight this season, and the surging Lingard slides a ball from right to left for Depay, who’s in the clear. However a bobble forces him slightly wide and his Hansen throws himself in front of the shot, deflecting it past the near post. From the corner, Mata darts cleverly to the near post, but his effort is scrambled away and Midtjylland survive.
7 min: The ball is finally put out of play, allowing Smalling to slot back into the centre of United’s defence. That was risible from the Portuguese referee. We get it, you’re the boss, you know the rules, put Radio 4 on if you must.
6 min: Chris Smalling went off a minute or two ago to replace his boots. He’s ready to come back on, but the officials still haven’t let him return! This is preposterous! United are down to 10 men. On the ball, Michael Carrick looks bewildered. He looks imploringly at the referee, who tells him to get on with it. Well done.
4 min: The tricky Sisto twists and turns on the left, peeling away from Love and reaching the byline, but his dinked cross drifts over everyone in the middle. “Despite the opposition, despite the competition, despite Utd’s line up, this is surely the biggest game of Utd’s season,” says Ian Batch. “It’s their only chance of qualifying for the champions league next season.....although admittedly they’ve got many games to go before they can seriously consider it.”
3 min: Midtjylland are set-piece and long-throw specialists. They’re determined to place United under as much aerial pressure as possible. A couple of throws have already been hurled into the box and United’s makeshift defence didn’t look especially depleted.
And we’re off! Midtjylland, all in red, get the game going, kicking from left to right and instantly pumping the ball down the line to little effect. Manchester United are in their black away strip and they won’t need reminding that they are playing against the team who knocked out Southampton.
Here come the teams! It’s time for some portentous music.
With all the controversy and protests over high ticket prices recently, Manchester United’s supporters are miffed that they’ve had to pay £71 for the pleasure of experiencing the Louis van Gaal philosophy tonight. They’ve pointed out that Southampton’s supporters paid around £20 back in August and the Midtjylland chairman, Rasmus Ankersen, has just been asked about it on BT Sport. He said that he understands their frustrations, but explains that the Danes have given up a lot of revenue by choosing to play this tie in their small stadium rather than moving the game to Copenhagen. Is that a valid explanation? What do you think?
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And in another low for your trusty MBM reporter, it turns out that David de Gea has not been passed fit after injuring his ankle in the warm-up. Instead, Sergio Romero starts in goal for Manchester United, who have no substitute goalkeeper on the bench.
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The word at the moment is that De Gea is going to start. Stand down, Sergio Romero. Just as well. United have only travelled with 18 players and wouldn’t have a goalkeeper on the bench if De Gea can’t play.
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“For all the talk about winning the competition as a route into the Champions’ League for United, probably the most interesting thing about this game is the possibility that it might turn into a headline-writers’ dream if the winner involves both of the away team’s full-backs,” says David Wall.
Or you can fantasise the possibility of a Liverpool v Manchester United final, a straight shoot-out for the right to embarrass themselves in the Champions League next season.
David de Gea appears to have twisted his ankle during the warm-up. He was limping as he left the pitch.
Louis van Gaal speaks about Wayne Rooney. “He was in a good shape, so that is always a blow,” he says. “Of course, Borthwick-Jackson is ill, cannot play, that’s also a blow.”
United have made four changes to the side that lost at Sunderland, with Donald Love, Paddy McNair, Ander Herrera and Memphis Depay all coming in. It’s a first start for Love, the 21-year-old selected at right-back in place of Matteo Darmian, who has a busted shoulder. Up front, Anthony Martial plays through the middle in the absence of Wayne Rooney. Will Keane, a 23-year-old forward who scored twice in 20 appearances during his loan spell at Preston North End earlier this season, is on the bench. It might have been handy to hang on to at least one of Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez, whatever the philosophy says.
The teams!
Midtjylland: Andersen; Romer, Hansen, Bodurov, Novak; Hassan, Sparv; Kadlec, Sisto, Olsson; Pusic. Subs: Dahlin, Urena, Dueland, Banggaard, Bach Bak, Onuachu, Royer.
Manchester United: De Gea; Love, Smalling, McNair, Blind; Herrera, Carrick; Lingard, Mata, Memphis; Martial. Subs: Romero, Poole, Riley, Pereira, Schneiderlin, Weir, Keane.
Referee: Artur Dias (Portugal).
Hello. For some clubs, participation in the Europa League is like double physics on a grey and stuffy Thursday afternoon, something to be endured rather than enjoyed. Manchester United fall into that bracket. With their stature and history and romance and financial clout, they don’t really belong here. They’re Gulliver amongst Lilliputians in these surroundings, only they’re not on some brilliant adventure, they’ve badly lost their way and have slipped out of the Tuesday and Wednesday night crowd. After missing out on the Champions League two years ago, there was an easy assumption that normal service was resumed, that all was well in the world again. Not so. The three-time champions quickly discovered that they were no longer cut out for elite competition, struggling to third place in their group behind Wolsfburg and PSV Eindhoven, and after being booted out, they find themselves rubbing shoulders with the also-rans.
So here they are, forced into the Thursday-Sunday grind of the Europa League, a marathon of a competition that is seen by many as a drain on resources. But while United would rather have been playing Gent last night, it would be pointless for them to kid themselves that they’re better than this, to look down their nose at Danish champions and stats nerds Midtjylland and conclude that their opponents tonight have no business being on the same pitch tonight. Sure, there are enough 472 matches to go before we get to the final, but this is United’s level at the moment and this is where they deserve to be. Louis van Gaal’s side really aren’t very good at football at the moment, a problematic development for a football team, and given that they’re currently fifth in the Premier League, six points behind Manchester City in fourth, winning the Europa League could represent their best chance of qualifying for the Champions League again.
It’s doable. United are amongst the favourites, along with other heavyweights like Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Sevilla and, er, Liverpool, but perhaps the bookies are going on reputation rather than form. United’s football has mostly been horrendous this season, dull and dreary to the point of offensiveness, and while they were hinting at a revival recently, that came to a crashing halt when they lost to Sunderland on Saturday. Since going top with a last-minute 2-1 victory over Watford on 21 November, United have won five of 17 games in all competitions, every defeat sparking fresh rumours about Jose Mourinho taking over from Van Gaal, and to make matters worse, Wayne Rooney is out for the next two months with a knee injury. Once we get the scoffing out of the way, it’s worth remembering that Rooney has scored seven goals since the turn of the year. If United fail to approach this match with the right mindset, they could be in for a nasty shock.
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