Right then, I’m off. Here’s Sid Lowe’s match report. Bye!
You may have heard this one before. It wasn’t so late this time and maybe it lacked the drama of other days, including the last time these teams met, but it was still familiar. The manager changes, the story doesn’t.
Above all, nor does Cristiano Ronaldo, still scoring at a relentless rate. Villarreal had felt in control, only to lose it with 12 minutes to go, allowing Michael Carrick to begin his time as interim coach to the interim coach with a win that put Manchester United through. The goal that pathed the way to the next round was delivered by No 7.
A second was added in the last minute by Jadon Sancho, smashing a shot in off the bar. The move had been superbly executed by Ronaldo, Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes. Down on the touchline, Carrick smiled and not without reason.
Much more here:
Michael Carrick has a chat:
We came here to win the game. I believed we would. I believed we were ready for it tonight, and it proved to be the case. It wasn’t an easy game by the way, they’re a good team and make you work. I thought the boys had to dig in at times and show a little bit of everything, so I’m delighted with the way it ended up.
Let’s be honest I don’t think we could have hoped to play pretty football from the word go. When you’ve suffered results-wise and you’re not in great form it’s not easy to come out and everything to click. I think it had a bit of everything, and that’s all I could hope for.
I have enjoyed it. I’ve really enjoyed it, the whole thing. It’s not been an easy couple of days for everyone at the club. That result almost feels like it’s for Ole. I can’t get away from that. But we had a job to do, and thankfully it all went to plan in the end.
Here’s a report on Bayern Munich’s win over Dynamo Kyiv:
Harry Maguire is dead chuffed:
It’s massive. it’s massive for our season. We knew the last couple of months have been nowhere near good enough, and we needed to come here and get a result, for our season, for our fans. We have to make sure that’s just a start, we need to push on. It wasn’t pretty, the first half especially was tough, tight, edgy. It was important to stay in the game, and I thought the lads who come off the bench really helped us push on and the second half performance was really good.
We know how coming away from home in Europe you’ve got to set up solid, not give away goals. I thought we executed the plan really well and second half we did a lot better, and I thought we deserved the result because of the number of chances we created.
As a team we want to be on the front foot, we want to be aggressive. It must be a start, we must keep improving and keep pushing.
Final score: Villarreal 0-2 Manchester United
90+3 mins: It’s all over! United started the game badly, ended it excellently, and will leave Spain with three excellent points in their pockets.
Caretaker managers have won 60.00% of their games in charge of Manchester United whereas Sir Alex Ferguson only won 59.67% of his matches in charge.
— Richard Jolly (@RichJolly) November 23, 2021
90+3 mins: Fernandes plays a lovely pass through to Rashford, but Foyth gets back to turn the ball behind. Before the corner is taken, Juan Mata replaces Sancho.
90+1 mins: United bring Nemanja Matic on for Ronaldo.
89 mins: It’s an excellent counter-attack, but it ends with the ball at the feet of Jadon Sancho, a yard inside the penalty area and not in a great deal of space as a defender comes across to cover. No matter, he takes a touch and then thunders a shot into the roof of the net at the near post!
GOAL! Villarreal 0-2 Man Utd (Sancho, 90 mins)
That’ll do! Jadon Sancho scores a screamer, and Manchester United qualify for the last 16!
Updated
88 mins: Another United corner. “Just imagine what I go through,” writes Andy Flintoff. “How do you think I feel?” writes Matt Stephens. “My real name is Matt Djemba-Djemba, but I had to change it for obvious reasons.”
86 mins: United have had an excellent final 20 minutes, and are still pushing. Fernandes’s 20-yard half-volley is deflected just wide.
85 mins: Villarreal bring Boulaye Dia on for Moi Gómez.
84 mins: Nearly another! Wan-Bissaka’s crossfield pass is headed weakly backwards by Foyth and Ronaldo runs onto it and touches it past Rulli, but also beyond the far post.
83 mins: Capoue powers a diving header over the bar, and we get another replay of the goal, really a very fine first-time finish from Ronaldo.
79 mins: That was a goal from nothing. I think there are referees who would have decided that Fred’s challenge on Capoue was a foul, and he didn’t appear to get the ball, but it all seemed fair dos to me. Villarreal bring Daniel Raba on for Estupinan.
GOAL! Villarreal 0-1 Man Utd (Ronaldo, 78 mins)
Manchester United take the lead! Fred puts pressure on Capoue as he prepares to receive Rulli’s short pass, the ball deflects to Ronaldo, and he lifts it over the keeper and into the net!
Updated
78 mins: Rashford crosses, but both Fernandes and Ronaldo are offside.
76 mins: Both teams seem to have decided they’d probably on balance prefer to win this.
73 mins: Villarreal bring Samu Chukwueze on for Pino, and Alberto Moreno for Trigueros.
71 mins: Great chance for United, but Rulli saves! Sancho cuts in from the right, exchanges passes with Fernandes and bursts past the defence, but Rulli is out really quickly to charge down the shot.
68 mins: The ball is played over the Villarreal defence for Rashford, who is making a run in behind. If he had noticed Ronaldo to his left he could have rolled the ball across and United would have had a goal disallowed for offside, but instead he tried to control it, failed, and the offside flag was more or less meaningless.
66 mins: United make a double substitution, taking off Van de Beek and Martial and bringing on Fernandes and Rashford.
63 mins: Chance! Villarreal work the ball nicely from right to left, but with Wan-Bissaka flinging himself in his direction Danjuma scoops his shot over the bar.
62 mins: Apparently Marcus Rashford is being shown things on a flip chart..
59 mins: Super stop from De Gea! Villarreal break, Moi Gómez’s shot deflects to Trigueros, and his effort takes an awkward bounce but De Gea still gets a hand to it and turns it round the post!
Updated
56 mins: On the subject of names that sound like footballer names, an email arrives from, um, John Barnes. “Come on boys lets stop mucking around now. The big man’s here.”
52 mins: Sancho’s low cross deflects to Fred, whose shot is easily saved. I’m not sure that either of these teams looks that displeased at the prospect of a goalless draw, but they’re both having the occasional go at attacking.
“I know what Ian ‘Foyth’ Forth means,” writes Matt Dony. “Dony is a fairly unusual surname, so I always used to enjoy listening to coverage of my homophonetic brother MS Dhoni, and living vicariously through him. It’s the little things, sometimes…”
48 mins: The game has restarted at rather gentle pace, but Villarreal have now won a corner so there’s that. “My surname is Keegan and I am 61 years old,” writes Phil Keegan. “Kevin signed for Liverpool when I was finishing primary school. I have been asked several million times if I am related to him (I am not). During the 1980s it got so bad that I started pretending that I didn’t know who Kevin Keegan was, though no one bought it, including the manager of a campsite near Venice. I had to see an ENT doctor in the late 90s, an elderly gentleman. This was in Austria. His waiting room was packed with patients but after calling me in we talked football and Kevin Keegan for about 25 minutes, and then he told me that I didn’t have tinnitus.”
46 mins: The players are back out, the ball is back rolling, and there have been no halftimely changes.
You might consider using the half-time break to book tickets to Football Weekly Live!
Half time: Villarreal 0-0 Manchester United
45+1 mins: United improved after a pretty ropey start, and will be relieved to be still level as they limp, in some cases literally, to the break. Back in a bit.
44 mins: Fred goes down, Parejo goes down, Trigueros goes down - all over the place there are people running into each other off the ball - and after a nice turn Moi Gomes’s shot deflects wide.
42 mins: Parejo takes the free kick, and drops it onto the roof of the net.
41 mins: Van de Beek works his way into the book for a challenge on Estupinan. He seemed to mainly get ball, but there was no way he could execute that challenge without taking down the man as well.
38 mins: Another couple of minor injuries, and another dropped ball. “It’s mildly thrilling that someone with the same name as me is playing, albeit in garbled translation,” writes Ian Forth of Juan Foyth. So not the same name, then.
Once, at the height of the Spice Girls’ fame, the woman on the checkout at Sainsbury’s saw the name on my credit card and asked, in all seriousness, if I was related to Emma Bunton. Naturally I bashfully admitted that I was.
37 mins: The game restarts with a dropped ball on the halfway line. Fred, who seemed to turn his ankle nastily before going over, seems to have recovered.
Updated
35 mins: It’s all happening now. Lindelof releases Ronaldo with an excellent long crossfield pass but the attack ends with Ronaldo trying to release Van de Beek with a backheel, missing, and then Fred going down under no contact and staying there.
34 mins: Ronaldo hammers his shot into the wall.
33 mins: Pino bars Alex Telles’s path with an outstretched arm, earns himself a booking, and gives United another decent free-kick chance. Ronaldo likes the look of this one.
31 mins: Capoue finds Danjuma in space inside the area, but by the time the former Bournemouth man brings the ball under control the space is no longer there.
30 mins: United have a shot! Telles crosses, and Ronaldo soars above the defence but heads too close to Rulli, who catches.
28 mins: Save! De Gea’s hands get another workout, as Trigueros runs onto a pull-back and hits a low shot towards the far post which the Spaniard pushes away.
26 mins: “Interesting that you use the phrase ‘palm warmer’ for David De Gea’s save,” says Gary Naylor. “Though hardly the biggest issue for the new coach, his reluctance to do exactly that (preferring his feet) is surely costing goals. Of course, we tend to notice the stops only.” He has always been an exceptional foot-based shot-stopper, and suddenly precisely the kind of thing that people once praised him for is bringing only criticism.
23 mins: United have a bit of a move, but it ends with Ronaldo rolling the ball into the path of Van de Beek’s run on the right, before realising that Van de Beek isn’t actually running. Goal kick.
Updated
20 mins: Juan Foyth barges into Ronaldo, sending him sprawling, and the Portuguese is further infuriated by the referee’s decision not even to give him a free kick.
18 mins: Now up to 73%, though in the last coupleof minutes they’ve spent quite a lot of time passing it to Geronimo Rulli in goal.
16 mins: According to Uefa’s stats Villarreal have had 68% of possession so far.
12 mins: Now Pau Torres heads Estupinan’s cross over the bar. Michael Carrick couldn’t really be expected to completely transform the team within a couple of days, which is just as well because from the looks of things he hasn’t.
10 mins: Now Villarreal work their way through! The ball is deflected across the edge of the United area to Yeremy Pino, who takes a touch and hammers a shot wide of the near post!
8 mins: Villarreal continue to dominate possession, but so far United are defending their area well.
5 mins: An early palm-warmer for David de Gea courtesy of Moi Gómez, whose low shot from just outside the area is pushed away.
3 mins: Alex Telles sends the ball into the area, and it flicks off a defender’s head and falls to McTominay, beyond the far post, who hits the side netting.
2 mins: Villarreal keep the ball for a while, and when eventually they give it away they immediately kick Anthony Martial, and United have a dangerous free-kick.
1 min: Before kick-off United took the knee, Villarreal did not join in, and there was significant whistling from the crowd.
1 min: He’s back! And we’re off!
And that hasn’t worked, so now the German referee has left the pitch.
Someone is now changing the batteries on the communication device attached to Felix Brych’s arm.
Right, the teams are out and very nearly ready to roll. For now, though, the umpires are just standing around looking slightly puzzled about something.
Much TV pundit chat between ex-Man Utd stalwarts Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand about the “absurdity” of United’s two best forwards being in their mid-30s. Here’s another former Man Utd old’un, Zlatan Ibrahiovic, chatting to Donald McRae:
Pre-match reading
Plenty to get stuck into here, starting with Jamie Jackson’s exclusive on Manchester United’s interest in the former Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde.
It is understood Valverde has discussed with John Murtough, United’s football director, taking over on a temporary basis, with the club conscious that having worked with Lionel Messi at Barcelona he would be at ease managing Cristiano Ronaldo. Valverde has started sounding out potential players he could add to strengthen the squad should he be appointed.
And here’s Jamie on Carrick’s relish for the job at hand:
While Sid Lowe has been chatting to Villarreal’s Pau Torres:
However much the club grows, this is still a town of 50,000. It’s not normal that a club from such a small place does so well. I’m the only one in the team from Vila-real and there were lots of people in the stands I knew. I’m delighted to represent the town. I’ve always lived there – I’m comfortable there, feel myself there – and we all know each other. If it’s not a friend, it’s a friend of my cousins. I couldn’t let them down.
The teams!
Michael Carrick has made four changes to Saturday’s starting lineup for the drubbing at Watford: Telles in for Shaw, Fred in for Matic, Van de Beek in for Fernandes and Martial in for Rashford.
Villarreal: Rulli, Foyth, Albiol, Torres, Estupinan, Capoue, Trigueros, Parejo, Moi Gomez, Pino, Danjuma. Subs: Sergio Asenjo, Mario, Alcacer, Iborra, Chukwueze, Dia, Raba, Moreno, Pena, Mandi, Pedraza, Iker.
Man Utd: De Gea, Wan Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Alex Telles, Fred, McTominay, Sancho, van de Beek, Martial, Ronaldo. Subs: Bailly, Mata, Rashford, Lingard, Diallo, Bruno Fernandes, Dalot, Heaton, Henderson, Matic.
Referee: Felix Brych (Munich)
Hello world!
The latest test of Manchester United’s awfulness comes at Villarreal, currently an unimpressive 12th in the Spanish top flight table - they drew seven of their first eight games this season, six of those in La Liga, which didn’t really help - but with two wins and just one goal conceded in their last three matches seem to be coming back into form. United will hope they can do likewise after disposing of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer following Saturday’s abysmal defeat at Watford. His temporary-for-now replacement, Michael Carrick, certainly seems to have the right priorities: “What matters now is getting the right results,” he said. Though I suppose that is also what mattered before.
Carrick also revealed how the players reacted to Solskjaer’s departure. “All things considered it went really well,” he said. “Everyone adapted in a really classy manner.”
It seems pretty clear to me that he must have said that everyone adapted in a really classy manor, specifically the palatial abodes to which they retreated when they were released early from training because like usual they skipped the tactical work, though I suppose I could be mistaken.
Anyway, this is Villarreal’s 12th Champions League game against an English club and they are yet to win one (they’ve had 12 draws, including four in five games against United). The curious thing about that is that they’ve played five Europa League games against English clubs and won three of them, so it seems they suffer from entirely competition-specific Anglophobia. Perhaps tonight is the night that all changes. Welcome, let’s find out together!
