Manchester United had another frustrating night on Thursday after they were held for a goalless draw by the Dutch team AZ Alkamaar in the Europa league.
In a game where not many chances were created, United players let out cries of a penalty when substitute Rashford went to ground to challenge from Stijn Wuytens in the dying moments of the game. only to be waved off by the referee.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, after the match showed his disappointment over not getting the decision in his team’s favour.
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“It’s a penalty 101 times out of a 100,” Solskjaer told BT Sport.
“How many times this season have we not got penalties? Against Arsenal that would be 2-0, tonight would have been 1-0.
“It would have topped off a very good performance away from home against a very good team. We’ve come here and should have won.”
United goalkeeper David de Gea, who forced a few sharp saves said that Rashford was convinced he should have been awarded a penalty.
“From my position it’s really difficult to see that,” he said. “We asked Marcus and he said 100 per cent it’s a penalty. I didn’t see well from my position but it’s probably a penalty.”
The decision might be reason for United drawing the match, but what was more worrying is that they did not manage a single shot on target in the match, while their opponents managed four. Even in the overall attempts category, United had half as many as AZ Alkamaar.
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“It’s a penalty 101 times out of 100!”
“How many times this season? We’d have been 2-0 up against Arsenal and 1-0 up here!” ?
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fuming with the decision not to award his side a penalty after Marcus Rashford was brought down…@DesKellyBTS pic.twitter.com/LpIr7osD3l
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 3, 2019
Another worry for United is that Paul Pogba, who was excluded from the Europa League squad, is now set to miss the next Premier League fixture as well. United play Newcastle United on Sunday, a match for which they will be under tremendous pressure to win after just nine points in seven games.
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“He probably won’t be available on Sunday,” Solskjaer said of Pogba. “There’s an international break as well, it might be time for us to give him 10 or 14 days extra to be ready for Liverpool.”
United are already have fairly long injury list which includes Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Phil Jones, Luke Shaw, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Anthony Martial and Eric Bailly. Pogba is now added to the list at least for the next game.