FENERBAHCE 2, MANCHESTER UNITED 1
- Moussa Sow and Jeremain Lens goals put Fenerbahce in control
- Paul Pogba goes off injured after half an hour
- Wayne Rooney’s late consolation goal puts him on 38 European goals for Manchester United, level with Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
- Fenerbahce win their third game in six meetings with Manchester United
- Jose Mourinho’s fifth defeat in 17 games in charge of the Reds
Less than 48 hours after cross town rivals Manchester City were beating Barcelona – an injury-hit Manchester United were meekly going down 2-1 in Turkey to Fenerbahce.
To be fair, the two Fenerbahce goals were moments of magic – an overhead kick and a free kick around the wall – both of which overshadowed Wayne Rooney’s late strike from outside the area.
But it was United’s overall insipid performance that came to the fore against a Fenerbahce side that was so poor against the Reds just two weeks ago.
Boss Jose Mourinho was already dealing with the fall-out from a one-sided 0-0 draw at home against Burnley and he was punished yesterday for two recent transgressions against referees with a one match touchline ban and a total of £58,000 in fines.
But the Portuguese didn’t hold his tongue against his own team in a week when he restored the exiled Bastian Schweinsteiger and previously injured Phil Jones to first team squad training.
“It was like they were playing a Champions League final and we were playing a summer friendly.” fumed Mourinho who said his team let him down.
He added: “We started the game sleeping. They started at 100mph and we started really slowly.
“A team that concedes a goal after two minutes is a team that is not ready, not prepared, not focused and not concentrated.”
Mourinho also appeared to dig out individual players, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan – a second half substitute – on the receiving end of criticism again with the Portugese declaring that the Armenian had to “do more” after what was expected of him in an attacking midfield role.
The result left United in third place in Europa League Group A on six points, behind both Fenerbahce and Feyenoord on seven points each, with two games to go – Feyenoord at home and Zorya away.
It might have been worse for the Reds had Zorya not drawn 1-1 with the Dutch team tonight to prevent them from taking a commanding lead in Group A.
United still control their own Europa League destiny but can’t afford any more slip-ups if they hope to reach the knockout phase.
The Reds have now won just two of their last seven games since the end of September – a 4-1 victory over Fenerbahce and a 1-0 win over City’s reserves at Old Trafford in the EFL Cup – and the Fenerbahce defeat almost as embarrassing as their 4-0 surrender at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea.
Mourinho made just three changes to the side that couldn’t beat Burnley last Saturday with Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard and Zlatan Ibrahimovic making way for Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Morgan Schneiderlin.
The Portuguese boss had already moaned about playing “two left backs at centre back” but there was a stunning lack of width up front despite picking pacy strikers Marcus Rashford and Martial to play either side of captain Rooney.
Two weeks after being asked to explain their poor performance in Manchester by their own manager Dick Advocaat, Fenerbahce answered their domestic critics with a proud performance to beat United for the third time in six encounters in Europe.
In a game of few real chances, shot-shy United had just three on target while Fenerbahce had four.
In fact, Fenerbahce scored with their first two shots on target in the game, the first after little over a minute of action in Istanbul and the second after 59 minutes.
Hasan Ali’s cross from the left found Mossa Sow who had found plenty of space between Daley Blind and Marcos Rojo and produced a stunning overhead kick to put the Reds on the back foot almost from the start.
A first half injury to Paul Pogba saw Ibrahimovic introduced into the action after just 30 minutes but although the Reds continued to dominate they couldn’t find any kind of rhythm in the pressure cooker atmosphere in Turkey.
Jeremain Lens’ free kick just before the hour mark seemed to catch David De Gea by surprise and the Reds’ keeper was motionless as the set piece flew around the United wall and past the Spaniard to double the Fenerbahce lead.
Rooney finally pulled one back a minute from time with thrashed shot from well outside the area – his 38th European goal for United – level with record holder Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
It was also his 247th goal for the Reds, just two short of Sir Bobby Charlton’s all-time United record.
It wasn’t a goal that the striker opted to celebrate, however, and United certainly didn’t deserve to get anything as their hosts hung on after surviving a late flurry of chances by the Reds.