Manchester United’s Europa League campaign ended at the semi-finals stage, though for their efforts, two players have been named in WhoScored’s best XI of the round…
It was a tough loss to take, though having slept on it, United were pretty unlucky. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side were comfortably the better team, though they just couldn’t stick the ball in the back of the net.
Chances aplenty were created, while the defence was solid, minus two awful lapses in concentration. The likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Victor Lindelof are rightly getting pelters for their mistakes.
There were some good performances, too. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to set up a showdown with Inter Milan and a whole host of ex-Reds, including Romelu Lukaku, who also earned a spot in this best XI.
Anyway, the team comes from WhoScored, whose statistical view of the games places two current United players in the side.
Take a look at WhoScored’s Europa League team of the semi-finals here:
Let’s start with Paul Pogba. The mercurial Frenchman played outstanding, from first minute till last. His passing range was excellent while he won the physical battles time-after-time. We also saw the best of his insane dribbling ability, too.
It was a game in which Pogba dominated the midfield and rightly earned an 8.37 rating via WhoScored’s system. On another day, he’d be walking home with a richly-deserved Man of the Match award after racking up at least a few assists…
The other United player to be named in the XI was Marcus Rashford. This one, I’m far more sceptical of… Don’t get me wrong, the Englishman has improved ten-fold over the course of the last twelve months, though he wasn’t good on Sunday evening.
He looks far less confident than he did before lockdown and I still suspect his back is giving him some trouble. His finishing wasn’t crisp at all against Sevilla, while he wasn’t making those scintillating solo runs that became a staple of his game.
I hope the rest Rashford can get over the next month or so will do him the world of good – and he’ll come back rejuvenated in 2020/21.
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