Manchester United walked away with an extremely fortunate 0-0 draw away to Sevilla on Wednesday. Here are three things we learned from the game.
Manchester United left Sevilla with a 0-0 draw, mainly thanks to the heroics of David de Gea. Despite the performance, Jose Mourinho will be pleased his side will have the chance to settle the tie at home in three weeks time. Here are three things we learned from the game
Manchester United were lucky to draw
From early on in the game, the Red Devils attempted to challenge Sevilla in the air. The visitors were only able to craft one or two chances from this tactic, the best of which Romelu Lukaku volleyed over the bar. In fact, United managed just one shot in the first 30 minutes of the match, such was their lack of accuracy or intent in attack.
Meanwhile, Sevilla grew more and more confident up front as the game went on. They initially struggled to make any clear-cut chances, but by the time halftime came around, the hosts had created at least two scoring opportunities, both saved in fantastic style by de Gea.
The second half saw United retreat deeper into their own half, as Sevilla continued to look for the opener. The Red Devils will be thankful that the home side’s attackers, particularly Luis Muriel and Joaquin Correa, were off form as both players had a handful of chances to be put their side in front.
United are unlikely to progress much further in the competition should they continue to play so negatively away from home. Sevilla had their club top scorer, Wissam Ben Yedder, on the bench the entire game and yet were still able to outclass a United side with attacking stars such as Lukaku and Paul Pogba.
Sevilla silence the critics
In the pre-match buildup, Ray Wilkins was quoted saying on Talksport radio that Sevilla would be bottom six of the Premier League if they played in England. The comment was quite ignorant considering Sevilla have won the Europa League three times in the last five years. The home side truly silenced Wilkins and anyone that thought they would roll over for the visiting side on Wednesday. Despite their poor form domestically, Sevilla were able to execute their game plan to perfection and completely outplayed United over the course of the 90 minutes.
If there was one criticism of Sevilla, it was their lack of a clinical touch in front of goal. Muriel has been in very poor form this season and did little justify his start on Wednesday. Correa spurned some the Andalusian’s best chances over the course of the game.
Vincenzo Montella did bring on Sandro Ramirez for Muriel late on in the game, but it seemed Sevilla’s chance to win the game had passed by the time the young Spaniard came on. Sevilla fans will be hopeful Montella will learn from his mistakes in choosing his attackers for the next leg away from home.
United will likely fancy their chances at home, but if we’re to take anything out of this first leg, it’s that Sevilla are well capable of shocking the Red Devils, even at a tough ground like Old Trafford.
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Is Antonio Valencia a full-back?
United spent in the ball park of 200 million Euros in two transfer windows this season, and yet Mourinho still believes Antonio Valencia is his best full-back. Valencia started his career as a midfielder, but has been recently turned into an auxiliary full-back. Valencia was beaten time and time again by Correa. It wasn’t a coincidence that Correa had Sevilla’s best chances of the game, as the winger was offered the freedom of the right flank and found it increasingly easy to beat his marker out wide.
Having spent such a substantial amount of money since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, United still have massive gaps in the backline, particularly at full-back. Although he managed better, Ashley Young still doesn’t look comfortable at full-back either. The fitness of Luke Shaw has been a consistent issue since he was signed four years ago, while United still don’t have an obvious starter at right-back outside of Valencia. It’s quite staggering that given the amount of money spent United still have glaring gaps on their depth chart.