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Manchester United were bundled out of the Europa League after being outwitted by Sevilla in a 3-2 loss for the Red Devils.
Erik ten Hag’s men crumbled under the pressure of a loud and bouncing Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium. The Reds produced a poor performance and in truth, barely laid a glove on Sevilla.
United made a number of calamitous mistakes in defence that Sevilla capitalized on to advance to the semi-finals of the Europa League where the Spanish team will clash against Serie A giants Juventus.
Sevilla’s opener came due to blunders from David de Gea and Harry Maguire. De Gea, oblivious to Sevilla’s relentless high press, passed the ball to an equally unaware Maguire who had it pinched off him easily.
Youssef En-Nesyri made no mistake from close range to give his side an early lead.
United’s pathetic set-piece defending in which Loic Bade got the jump on Casemiro before heading the ball into the back of the net made the tie a more comfortable affair for Los Nervionenses.
Nine minutes before the 90th mark, De Gea came rushing out of his line to try and clear the ball but the United goalkeeper made a mess of it, allowing En-Nesyri the chance to chip the ball inside an empty goal.
While Maguire and De Gea were largely the culprits, most of United’s stars simply did not turn up.
One player who did and would have felt unlucky to be on the losing side going by his steady personal display is Victor Lindelof.
Lindelof was superb last weekend against Nottingham Forest and the Swede started again vs. Sevilla next to Maguire.
Lindelof made four clearances during the 90 minutes he was on the pitch. He blocked two shots from Sevilla’s players.
The 28-year-old made five tackles.
The United number two delved into five ground duels and won all five. Aerially, he contested two challenges and was triumphant with one.
The defender had 67 touches of the ball to his name and an impressive pass success rate of 94%.
(Stats obtained from Sofascore)
While doubts continue to mount over the likes of Maguire and De Gea and their purpose to the team going forward, it bodes well that Lindelof has an air of stability around him and he is showing that in the absences of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane, he can be relied upon to step in and do a job.
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