Ronaldo rescues 'lucky' Man Utd from more Villarreal misery
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted Manchester United "got lucky" after Cristiano Ronaldo marked his record-breaking 178th Champions League appearance with a 95th-minute winner to beat Villarreal 2-1 at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner had barely threatened until he fired past Geronimo Rulli for his fifth goal in as many games since returning to United.
Solskjaer's men were staring down the barrel of another embarrassing group stage exit from the Champions League after deservedly falling behind early in the second half to Paco Alcacer's smart finish.
Alex Telles' stunning strike quickly levelled, but they looked set to drop more points in Group F until Ronaldo's late intervention.
Despite the result, there was little in the performance to quell the growing questions as to whether Solskjaer is the man to get the best out of a squad of supremely talented individuals that are yet to click as a collective.
"That's what happens at Old Trafford, we had to throw caution to the wind and got lucky in the end," said Solskjaer.
"When you've got Cristiano on the pitch there is always a chance."
Ronaldo's late show beat Solskjaer's famous strike to win the Champions League in 1999 as United's latest winning goal in the competition.
However, for most of the 95 minutes Villarreal were the better side and were left to rue not taking their chances as they sit bottom of the group on one point from two games.
"We're annoyed. The game was basically over, we just needed to see it out and we didn't," said Villarreal defender Pau Torres. "We were impeccable before that. We took the lead, were creating chance and were better than Man United at Old Trafford."
United were without three of their first-choice back four with Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw sidelined by injury, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka was suspended after being sent off in the 2-1 defeat to Young Boys on matchday one.
A makeshift defence looked as such in the first half as Villarreal wasted a host of chances to inflict more misery on the Red Devils after beating them in May to win the Europa League.
De Gea was the fall guy in the Europa League final as he was the only player of the 22 on both sides to fail to score in a marathon penalty shootout.
However, he has started the season in supreme form and made brilliant saves from Arnaut Danjuma and Alcacer to keep the game scoreless at half-time.
United did not heed their warnings as eight minutes into the second period another promising break from Danjuma finally got the finish it deserved as Alcacer prodded through the legs of De Gea at the near post.
Telles was at fault for the opening goal as he played Danjuma onside.
But the Brazilian quickly made amends in spectacular fashion as he volleyed home Fernandes' free-kick from outside the area for his first United goal.
Solskjaer had named an extremely offensive line-up with Ronaldo flanked by Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood, and Paul Pogba alongside Fernandes in midfield.
But it was another night to forget Sancho since his £73 million move from Borussia Dortmund in July.
The England winger was easily kept in check by Juan Foyth before being replaced 15 minutes from time by Edinson Cavani.
The Uruguayan had a golden chance to instantly make himself the hero, but somehow headed wide with the goal gaping from Greenwood's perfect cross.
De Gea saved United once more five minutes from time in a goalmouth scramble to deny Moi Gomez and Boulaye Dia.
And Villarreal's profligacy in front of goal came back to haunt them as the all-time top goalscorer in Champions League history showed them how to finish.
Jesse Lingard turned a loose ball Ronaldo's way deep into stoppage time and his effort had too much power for Rulli.
(责任编辑:产品中心)
- Top 10 Most Significant Nvidia GPUs of All Time
- 团市委召开在校学生思想教育座谈会
- Sociedad triumph in Basque derby
- Shaky Jabeur survives first
- By a technicality, August's full moon is blue. Here's why.
- The AI stock bubble has burst. Here's how we know.
- Twitter wants to gather more info about reported tweets with personal information
- 石棉县公安局新棉派出所开展“2010严打整治”促社会和谐稳定
- NK says 'no intention' to review Hyundai Group chief's bid to visit Mount Geumgang
- 高温难耐,工会驿站化身“清凉小屋”
- Everyone's comparing their plans for 2020 to reality in this sad meme
- Donald Trump is the biggest roadblock to new net neutrality bill
- Interview: What is it Like to Develop a Game in VR?
-
CPUs Don't Matter For 4K Gaming... Wrong!
Something we hear a lot these days, especially when it comes to CPU benchmarking, is that CPU perfor ...[详细] -
'A Bug's Life' fleshlight is here to ruin your childhood memories
If you're feeling particularly nostalgic about the '90s and in the mood to tarnish your precious chi ...[详细] -
Amazon is under fire again for helping spread anti-vaccine conspiracies.Four major anti-vaccination ...[详细]
-
Can Klopp halt Liverpool slump?
LIVERPOOL:Jurgen Klopp admitted this week the time for change at Anfield is coming, but he is going ...[详细] -
How to trademark your TikTok phrase and protect your brand
So, you had a video go viral and it had a very specific phrase, like "Hawk Tuah on that thang" or "v ...[详细] -
Korea, China, Japan to delay three
South Korea, China and Japan have decided to postpone their trilateral summit until next year, which ...[详细] -
Stop what you're doing and update Google Chrome
Google is urging Chrome users to update the web browser right away to patch a zero-day vulnerability ...[详细] -
U.N. Security Council to hold meeting on N.K. missile launch
A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader K ...[详细] -
Google Search tries new tactics for limiting explicit deepfakes
The explosion of nonconsensual deepfake imagery online in the past year, particularly of female cele ...[详细] -
NK says 'no intention' to review Hyundai Group chief's bid to visit Mount Geumgang
This file photo, provided by Hyundai Group on Aug. 3, 2018, shows group chief Hyun Jeong-eun, compan ...[详细]
How 3D Game Rendering Works: Texturing
Japanese aquarium to host FaceTime festival for its lonely eels
- DOJ accuses TikTok of collecting and sharing users' personal views, as the app fights a ban
- 石棉县公安局新棉派出所开展“2010严打整治”促社会和谐稳定
- 谁下黑手 “削甘蔗的小伙”躺在西康码头
- Korea, China, Japan to delay three
- Doosan scraps controversial Robotics
- Independent counsel considers raid on presidential office
- 15 best celebrity graduation speeches to watch online