Manchester United have scored plenty of own goals in recent seasons. It was just that they tended to be figurative, not literal. There was a point when it seemed they would score four goals against Sevilla. In a way, they did. But when Tyrell Malacia and Harry Maguire found the net, it was their own. The goalkeeper they beat was David de Gea, not Bono. Maguire may have anticipated lifting the Europa League trophy, along with Bruno Fernandes. Instead, his defining contribution to this season’s competition may be the header that flew past his teammate.
Sometimes, of course, United savour two late goals and a dramatic turnaround in a European game but this was not the Nou Camp in 1999. Even Sir Alex Ferguson was not immune to the occasional collapse: Sevilla in 2023 was the first time United lost a two-goal lead in a European game since a 3-3 draw against Basel in 2011. “What can you do?” asked Erik ten Hag. “Sometimes you have bad days and bad luck.”
A 2-2 draw with Sevilla felt a case of both: indeed it was a cocktail of complacency, cautions and a loss of control, of deflections and dodgy decisions from the dugout, of injuries and ill-fortune. “I think we had the game in our hands; we were 2-0 up and should have scored three or four,” said Ten Hag. Instead, they conceded. “Two stupid goals,” rued Marcel Sabitzer, who had scored a seven-minute brace.
And everything came in pairs as United took the Noah’s Ark policy towards calamity, with two own goals, two injured centre-backs, in Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, and two players whose surprise substitutions, which helped shift the momentum towards Sevilla, came, according to the United manager, because the referee told him each was close to a second yellow card. Exit Fernandes and Antony. Exit United from the Europa League, perhaps: they could go to Seville next week without both first-choice central defenders and both of their top scorers, unless Marcus Rashford makes a swifter-than-expected recovery.
Ten Hag was not ruling it out. Indeed, he only ruled Martinez out for Sunday’s trip to Nottingham Forest. “I can’t say what the diagnosis is and I prefer to wait,” said Ten Hag but an ally from his Ajax days may not be seen at Old Trafford again for a while. The Argentinian was chaired off the pitch, his World Cup-winning teammates Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel seeming to think it was undignified for a warrior to leave the field of battle on a stretcher. The immediate sense was that his season may be over. “There was no opponent involved, so it doesn’t look great,” said Ten Hag. He tried to be philosophical. “We have very good replacements with Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw,” he said. “But of course it is a miss.” Maguire seems suddenly pivotal but Martinez has been transformative. United conceded one goal with him and one without; they have had hammerings with him in the side but he brings character and quality.
Without him, there was a loss of nerve. “They got scared,” said Sevilla manager Jose Luis Mendilibar. United have felt fearless at times this season. Not here. But then there was a reason they scarcely resembled United by the end. After the flurry of substitutions and minus the injured Martinez, they finished with arguably only three of Ten Hag’s first-choice team: De Gea, who had made some fine saves, Casemiro, a stand-in centre-back for the final few minutes, and Christian Eriksen, making the second cameo of a comeback and without a start since January. But then it will be a mix-and-match team in Spain next week: United’s fortunes may rest with fringe figures and Sabitzer’s double was a rare encouraging element.
One of the stand-ins, Malacia, was very culpable for his own goal, another Maguire, far less guilty for his. But Sabitzer nevertheless said: “We cannot concede these kind of goals.” Or, indeed, the chances at all. “We have to be more smart, we switched off for the first goal,” Ten Hag said. “But both goals were really unlucky. In the last 10 minutes everything was against us.”
It might prove 10 minutes that ultimately costs United European glory, when the injuries sustained to their centre-backs were reasons the side showed a self-destructive streak. But if United’s last tilt at the Europa League ended with De Gea missing a penalty in the 2021 final, this may be decided by something similarly strange, of twin own goals. And not just the metaphorical kind.
