UNITED STRUGGLE IN EUROPA LEAGUE

Louis van Gaal had to deal with a plethora of questions surrounding the poor performance of the team in the 2-0 defeat against Liverpool.

LVG

One of the biggest derbies in English football was the scene for the Europa League last 32 round. Both teams are fighting to featuring the last 16 round with United having more to lose than Liverpool.

The Merseyside club will see the Europa League as a great opportunity to qualify for the Champions League next season. United, meanwhile, wanted to win this game in order to recover from the loss against West Brom during the weekend.

Just one shot on target in the entire 90 minutes coupled with poor defending meant that United were never in the game. It could have been a much heavier defeat had it not been for the exploits of goalkeeper David de Gea. Van Gaal admitted that making just one clear-cut opportunity over the course of an entire game is not good enough.

However, United have been struggling with injuries to key players in recent months and this was certainly not his full-strength team. United will have to quickly recover from this loss and look towards progression in the FA Cup, via a replay with West Ham. The team are up against Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the Europa League tonight, and facing having to come back from 2-0 down in the first leg – if you fancy their chances and want to put money on it, you can claim your promo code right from your mobile and get better odds.

“You are right [only one clear-cut chance is disappointing]. I cannot deny that. I don’t think that we were in the third and fourth phase very creative. But it is also the defence of Liverpool and you can also give the credit for that to Liverpool. We have to improve a lot to create more goals. Okay, one shot, but we also had headers, not in the goal [on target] but outside the goal [off target]. Liverpool were the better team in the first half but in the second half we played a better match than before it,” said Van Gaal.