On Thursday, Man Utd tied 2-2 with Barcelona in the Europa League, with Marcus Rashford scoring the Reds’ opening goal.
Rashford scored against Barcelona.
Marcus Rashford has said Man Utd’s 2-2 draw against Barcelona on Thursday night ‘felt like a loss’.
Although it was goalless at half-time at Camp Nou, Barcelona broke the deadlock with a header from Marcos Alonso immediately after the interval, but Rashford produced an outstanding, well-taken equaliser just moments later.
After drawing level, it took just seven minutes for United to score again after stellar work again from Rashford at a corner. The forward beat his man from a corner routine and his dangerous ball into the box eventually led to a Barcelona own goal.
It was a remarkable turnaround from United, but they could not defend the lead and Barcelona made it 2-2 in the 75th minute.
The scoreline seemed a fair reflection of the chances created, but after the game, Rashford said the draw felt like defeat.
“It feels like a loss. I think we did well to get back into the game, the first half was probably in favour of them,” Rashford told BT Sport. “We stayed calm, we stayed composed, we tried to make chances when we could.
“In the second half, we scored two goals in quick succession and we felt in control of the outcome, but they’re a good team with more players. I just think we were searching for the chances more [second half], maybe because we were a goal behind.
“I felt we were going for it and trying to score goals. It’s difficult to find an angle to finish from there [his goal] so I just made my mind up and tried to get as clean contact as I could, so luckily it went in.
“You have to expect them to [fight back]. They’ve got a lot of top players, high-quality players and if you give them time on the ball, they’re going to hurt you and it’s as simple as that.”
Erik ten Hag criticises referee over Marcus Rashford incident vs Barcelona
Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag was left seething over referee Maurizio Mariani’s decision not to send off Barcelona defender Jules Kounde for a challenge on Marcus Rashford.
Ten Hag was booked
With United 2-1 up in the 64th minute, Rashford appeared to be bundled over by Kounde when he was racing towards goal but a foul was not given by Mariani and Barcelona equalised through Raphinha in the 76th minute.
Ten Hag was booked for remonstrating with the officials but was strident in his criticism of the referee, the linesman and the Video Assistant Referee for failing to dismiss Kounde for a professional foul.
“Also if I make make a point that has a big influence not only on this game but on this round, at 2-1, it was a clear foul on Marcus Rashford. We can discuss if it’s inside the box or outside the box, but definitely it’s a red card.
“Yes, I asked the referee why. So he said it was outside the box and it was no foul. And the linesman and referee were in a very good position to see and I think we had VAR. I think it’s not good, it was a really bad decision. I can’t understand.
“Maybe they were impressed by the pressure Barca made but they can’t be [like that at] the highest European level.
“The situation with Rashford is at 2-1, the momentum in the game is totally different. I heard it was a ball on the hand (by a United player in the penalty area), so maybe two mistakes.
“But you can’t equalise such mistakes because the moment in the game, in the whole round, was an important decision where he was wrong.”
Barcelona took the lead through Marcos Alonso’s header in the 50th minute but United struck twice within ten minutes through Rashford and a Kounde own goal.
“If you face the number one in Spain in an away game and you are that dominant, you see that as a positive,” Ten Hag added.
“Yes, we should have won this game, we have steps to go but when two good teams highest level, everyone agrees it was a really high-performance level from both teams and I said to my team I’m really happy with our performance against this strong team.
“Yeah, a little bit more, the criticism is: be more clinical, finish chances. In such a game, we created many chances, you can’t expect that but we did. And it’s a little bit of disappointment we didn’t score more. We should have scored a minimum of four goals tonight.”
source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
