No goals here, not even a shot on target in Copenhagen, and so into its final 45 minutes went this most chaotic of Champions League groups.
Sat bottom of it after accounting for almost all of said chaos, with only a win and four points to their name, Manchester United ought really to have been dead and buried long before, kept alive only by Bayern Munich’s dominance in strolling into the last-16 as the pool’s comprehensive winners.
On closing night at Old Trafford, though, there was little between two of Europe’s most storied clubs, Bayern at full-strength but only half-throttle, United a more intense force than that thrashed by Bournemouth, but ultimately not nearly good enough to inspire true belief in a miracle, and finally put out of their misery by Kingsley Coman’s winner 20 minutes from time.
In the end, events here mattered not, at least as far as qualification for the last-16, Copenhagen’s second-half winner at home to Galatasaray taking the Danish side through as Bayern’s distant pursuers. Defeat, though, sends Erik ten Hag’s side crashing out of Europe entirely, the damage done earlier in what is now confirmed as their worst ever Champions League group stage campaign, with a return frankly pitiful from what at the time of the draw looked a kind lot.
Had a patchwork defence that had lost both Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw mid-game displayed the same relative comfort in protecting chunky leads against both Copenhagen and Galatasaray as it did in stifling Harry Kane for 70 minutes on his club return to these shores, things would have played out differently.
The England captain ultimately found a way to make his inevitable mark, a lovely touch off the outside of the boot setting Coman away for his winner, but until then Andre Onana had not faced a chance of note, a prerequisite of any United hope on the basis of the goalkeeper’s ghostly showings between the sticks in the competition this term.
In truth, though, United seldom looked like upholding the other end of the bargain. Without Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial because of illness, Ten Hag had only three “senior” forwards to choose from, of whom teenager Alejandro Garnacho was brightest. Antony, on the other flank, did his usual routine of one-footed wastefulness, while Rasmus Hojlund, the joint-leading scorer in the competition, was bullied by two outstanding centre-backs built to match him for strength and pace in Dayot Upamecano and Min-jae Kim.
Bayern’s fans bookended the night taunting their opponents in perfect English, to which the predictable reply came in the fore of much reference to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and May of ’99.
On a night when this particular European journey met the swiftest possible end, it was yet another reminder of how far this club has fallen.
