Seeing Double

Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana endured a night to forget as two costly mistakes allowed Lyon to snatch a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday.

The Cameroon international allowed Thiago Almada’s soft free-kick to skip past him the day after being called “one of the worst goalkeepers” in United’s history in a pre-match spat involving the club’s former midfielder Nemanja Matic, now with Lyon. Teenage defender Leny Yoro equalised just before half-time and Joshua Zirkzee’s header in the 88th minute looked to have won the game for United at Groupama Stadium.

Andre Onana

But Onana failed to hold Georges Mikautadze’s low shot deep into stoppage time and Rayan Cherki poked home the rebound, leaving the tie in the balance ahead of the return clash at Trafford next week. United manager Ruben Amorim was quick to defend Onana and turn his attention to the second leg. “It can happen. If you play football, and we play a lot of games, you can make mistakes,” he said. 

“There is nothing I can say to Andre in this moment that will help. We have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus,” he added. Any momentum the Red Devils had built dissipated when Onana failed to keep out Almada’s free-kick. Having loudly jeered his every touch, Lyon fans revelled in Onana’s misfortune as he allowed Almada’s curling set-piece to bounce off his gloves and nestle in the far corner.

Man Utd boss Ruben Amorim

United equalised at the end of the half as Manuel Ugarte hooked the ball back into the box after Lucas Perri punched away Fernandes’ free-kick, as Yoro glanced home his first goal for the club. The much-maligned Zirkzee powered a header past Perri after a brilliant ball in from Fernandes only for United’s joy to be cut short in the fifth minute of added time when Cherki pounced on another Onana handling error to level. “I think we deserve even better than a draw. We played really well, but we know there is a second leg to come and we will go there to win,” Lyon’s goalscorer Cherki said.

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