FIVE ASIDES Europa League, round of 16, second leg: Real Betis 0, United 1 (agg: 1-5)
If you missed the game and saw the score, you might assume it had been routine. In fact it was anything but. This was a 1-0 that could just as well have been 3-4. United, who needed only to keep the ball, spent much of the first half being sliced open. If Juanmi, coming in off the left for Real Betis, had been able to work out where the goal was, a cakewalk might have turned into a cliffhanger. United were getting chances too, as the two sides competed to lay on a masterclass in how not to shoot. By the end Betis had managed two shots on target out of 15, United four out of 17.
Marcus Rashford was among the culprits, going clean through in the 55th minute, only to send the ball into the Seville sky. But a minute later he got a much harder chance, and he scored with a delicious strike - outside of the foot, swerving away from the keeper, slotting in just inside the post. This was the third or fourth time in the last fortnight when it looked as if his purple patch might be fading to grey. And yet if you look at United’s last six games, he’s got three goals (one in each leg against Betis, plus one in the League Cup final). All he’s done is slip from the stratosphere, where his only neighbour is Erling Haaland, to the level where most top strikers spend their careers, collecting a goal every other game. He now has 30 for the season – 27 for United, three for England. Take that, Ralf Rangnick.
Erik ten Hag has ended up in a curious place with his rotation. Rather like Jurgen Klopp, who used to rotate only in midfield, Ten Hag loses his distaste for chopping changing when he picks a back four. There was a strong case for resting Rashford, and sparing Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes the risk of a suspension. Ten Hag ignored all that and played the lot of them in a strong front six. But then at the back, he rested both Rapha Varane and Luke Shaw and called up Harry Maguire and Tyrell Malacia. Both did good things as individuals – Maguire bringing the ball out, Malacia getting forward – but the back four was suddenly shaky. Maybe the point of the rotation was to save Varane up for when Casemiro, his partner in calm, starts his domestic suspension, which runs from Fulham this weekend to Everton on 8 April. In any case, Ten Hag got away with it: Casemiro was the most commanding player on the field, Fernandes was creative as ever, and Rashford, who feels like an injury waiting to happen at the moment, emerged unscathed.
The most exciting name on the team sheet was Facundo Pellistri, finally getting his first United start. Like Alejandro Garnacho before him, he found it harder facing a fresh full-back than the weary ones he toys with as a sub. He got one early decision all wrong: racing to the byline with Rashford free in the middle, he went high when it looked easier to go low, and ballooned his cross. But at least he was there, leaving the left-back for dead in just the way that Antony struggles to manage. He was busy and feisty as well as pacy, and impressed Ten Hag enough to stay on for the full game. There was a nice moment when he was booked and Rashford, who seldom bothers to argue with with a ref, spoke up indignantly on Pellistri’s behalf, because the foul had been committed against him – a big kid looking after the little one.
All’s well that ends well. And United did eventually find a measure of control, once the goal was scored and Betis’s enterprise petered out. They now have two wins and a draw from their three trips to Spain in this season’s Europa League, which is a lot better than we had come to expect. Now another one beckons – against Sevilla, who practically own this trophy, having won it four times in the past nine years, six times in all. On the other hand, they are 13th in La Liga, and United have already dispatched the leaders (Barcelona) as well as the team who are fifth (Betis). The draw, which has been so kind to them in the domestic cups, does look tough: to lift the trophy, they may have to beat Juventus and Roma or Feyenoord as well as Sevilla. But then their record in the cups, since the World Cup break, is exemplary – played 12, won 11, drawn 1 (at Camp Nou). They have nothing to fear but fatigue.
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian and music for The Mail on Sunday. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing. And if you received this piece by email, please feel free to forward it to any fellow sufferers supporters.