Manchester United have continued with their bad run as they could not maintain an early lead against a lowly rated Burnley side. The Premier League giants traveled to Turf Moor days after a Championship side Middlesbrough knocked them out of the FA Cup.
Ralf Rangnick and his boys were expected to use the game against the relegation-threatened team to return to winning ways. To the dismay of the club’s fans, Manchester United failed to hold on to a 1-0 lead.
During the game, Manchester United scored as early as in the 9th minute, thanks to Raphael Varane’s header. But referee Mike Dean decided to disallow the goal after a VAR check revealed that Harry Maguire interfere with the build-up to the goal.
In the 18th minute, Paul Pogba scored his first goal of the season thanks to an assist from Luke Shaw. This time around, the referee and the VAR did not have a problem with the goal.
While in the 22nd minute, Manchester United had the chance to double their lead after Burnley’s Brownhill scored an own goal. But the linesman spotted that Pogba committed a foul in the build-up, hence, the goal was canceled.
Unfortunately for the visitors, they ended the first half with just a goal despite all the chances they created in the first half.
In the second half, it was a different ball game. The hosts came out more aggressive than their visitors and their aggressiveness paid off in the 47th minute when Jay Rodriguez scored the equalizer.
Afterward, the two teams could not score despite a series of goalscoring opportunities. Even the introduction of Cristiano Ronaldo in the 68th minute could not make the difference. Hence, the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Based on the draw, Manchester United have moved out of the top four to give room for West Ham United to take over. United are now sitting on the 5th spot with 39 points in 23 games, a point behind 4th placed West Ham United.
Based on the current standing, the 4th spot is opened for clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham, and even Wolves to compete for which makes things more difficult for United and West Ham.
After the 1-1 draw at Turf Moor, United’s coach Rangnick insisted that Manchester United scored three goals and described the game as a frustrating night.
“We scored three goals. That was different from last Friday when we only scored one goal in the first half. Tonight we scored three goals,” he told BT Sport.
“At the end, it is a frustrating evening for us because we should have won that game easily after the first half and even the last 25 minutes we had full control and dominated the game but were not decisive enough as we were in the first half.
“I could not blame the team for not having a killer instinct in the first half but in the last 25 minutes, we had a lot of set pieces.
“In the end, it was a little bit a case of luck with Raphael Varane, the header by Cristiano, Harry Maguire, but in the end, one point for a performance like this is just not enough.”
🗣 Ralf reflects on tonight's game.#MUFC | #BURMUN
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 8, 2022
Manchester United’s next game is against Southampton. The Premier League game is scheduled to kick off at 13:30 on February 12, 2022.
