In a scarcely credible tale of hubris André Onana was Manchester United’s culprit, committing two howlers that cast the goalkeeper as a mug and Nemanja Matic as a seer.
In the buildup to this match, Matic branded Onana one of United’s poorest-ever keepers when responding to the 29-year-old’s claim that United were better than Lyon. The tit-for-tat closed with Onana’s dig that he had won trophies at United – unlike Matic in his five years at the club – before a nightmarish evening ended with another error, this time for the hosts’ equaliser.
Deep in added time, Rayan Cherki scored after Onana weakly pushed Corentin Tolisso’s shot straight to the 21-year-old. Onana’s opening mistake was even poorer, a Thiago Almada free-kick skipping straight past him – surely to the glee of Matic, an unused substitute.
Leny Yoro made it 1-1 before Joshua Zirkzee looked to have sealed a classic smash-and-grab victory when rising to head home Bruno Fernandes’s pinpoint cross with 87 minutes on the clock. But after Cherki’s equaliser the final whistle blew to leave Onana despairing and United contemplating what might have been.
As Yoro said: “It’s the worst moment to concede a goal. Two-one would have been a good result away from home but now we have to win it at home. They’re a good team with a good striker and we need to be ready for everything. We defended really well, we were compact, and we’ll need that again at home. We need to keep our heads up – we didn’t lose tonight and we can win at Old Trafford, of course we can.”
Of his flicked, headed goal, the defender said: “I didn’t even think about it, I just reacted and tried to put my head there.” The breathless denouement means the tie is poised nicely for next week’s second leg but given how erratic United are, who will wager they can knock Lyon out and progress to the semi-final?
The Onana-Matic spat fuelled a crowd who let off flares and firecrackers in the sun, then entered a bouncing stadium to barrack the keeper whenever they could.
The same number were close to jeering Tolisso – their captain – when he jabbed a boot at Fernandes’s free-kick: he went close to beating his own keeper, Lucas Perri, but the ball went to safety.
Lyon targeted Diogo Dalot as a weakness. Twice diagonals caught him flatfooted. The second allowed Georges Mikautadze to aim a header towards Tolisso, but Dalot, recovering, cleared. Mikautadze’s next move was burning away from Dalot and dinking in a cross – again, the forward was thwarted and, again, United’s right-wing-back vulnerable.
United were often arranged with six or seven in the backline, a result of the pressure Lyon applied. On a rare foray down their left Patrick Dorgu pulled the ball back for Rasmus Højlund, but an embarrassing scuff ensued and Lyon had a goal-kick.
Fernandes was far more accomplished when Dalot and Alejandro Garnacho combined along the right and the latter found his captain in the area: the Portuguese pulled the trigger, Perri palmed over.
How Onana must have wished he had such safe hands because now came the first moment to forget. From the left, Almada floated over a free-kick into the corridor of uncertainty that tests whether a goalkeeper should come to claim or not.
Onana decided against doing so; the ball bounced in front of him and skidded and, despairing, he flung a glove – but this only tipped the ball into the net, as if giving catching practice off the thick edge of a bat.
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Cue unadulterated derision from the faithful and a rattled United, as personified by Dalot clattering Nicolás Tagliafico a time zone or two late and being booked by Glenn Nyberg, the Swedish referee.
The visitors needed calm but at their next attack Garnacho’s shot was snatched. Yet when they wandered off at the break the score was level: Fernandes’s free-kick was punched by Perri straight to Manuel Ugarte, whose volley was nodded in by Yoro.
Openings such as this had to be taken as they were scant and because each time Lyon came at United they looked like they could crumble. Once more Mikautadze zipped down the left and turned the ball in for Alexandre Lacazette. Just on as a replacement for Paul Akouokou, he skewed the volley and United escaped.
The crowd remained lively despite witnessing the attritional fare more typical of the journeyman, not the elite footballer.
Yoro, hoping to follow up his first United goal, launched a mazy run that took him infield from the left but ended with an attempt firmly in the file marked “speculative”.
On 62 minutes, Ruben Amorim ended another lost night for Højlund by replacing him with Zirkzee.
Perhaps Tolisso had caught the American’s bluntness because after slick footwork opened up United, he popped a shot tamely into Onana’s hands. But then came the dramatic finish.
Source: theguardian.com
