Schneiderlin praises Martial’s mental maturity

REUTERS – Manchester United’s teenage forward Anthony Martial showed impressive maturity to pick himself up from conceding a first-half penalty against CSKA Moscow on Wednesday before going on to score the equaliser, said Morgan Schneiderlin.

United started the Champions League game well but fell behind on 15 minutes after Martial was correctly adjudged to have hand-balled in the penalty area.

Roman Eremnko’s spot-kick was palmed onto the post by David de Gea but Seydou Doumbia was on hand to put CSKA ahead.

Martial, who joined United for a reported 36 million pounds ($55.70 million) on the final day of the transfer window and has scored five times in nine appearances, did not let the penalty decision get to him and equalised in the second half.

“He didn’t let his head down because that can happen to anyone,” said team mate Schneiderlin. “Anthony scored a great goal and after that we pushed on but we could not score the second goal, which was a shame.”

The 1-1 draw in Moscow left United on four points from three games in Group B, two behind leaders Wolfsburg. CSKA also have four points, while PSV Eindhoven are a point further back.

Schneiderlin acknowledged that United had to be more creative in possession and said that while they were disappointed not to get the win it was more important not to come away from Moscow with nothing.

“We could have played a bit more direct sometimes, but we know that we can improve because we need to create a bit more,” the midfielder said.

“It’s a bit of mixed feelings. With the game we wanted to take the three points but in the Champions League it is a marathon, not just about one game,” he added.

“It is difficult because we wanted to come here to win, but the most important thing was to not leave here without any points.”

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)