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MOTD: Manchester United 1-0 CSKA Moscow

By on November 3, 2015

It was the seventy-eighth minute of Manchester United’s Champions League meeting with CSKA Moscow and Seydou Doumbia was clean through on goal with a chance to win the game. David de Gea came up big with a strong hand to block Doumbia’s original effort, but was beaten with the second. Only Chris Smalling, barreling back after making the original error himself, managed to block the forward’s tap-in with a hurtling, last minute tackle to spare the face of Ashley Young, who had tripped on the goal-line.

Ninety-five seconds later, United were back up the other end. Michael Carrick lofted a beautiful diagonal ball over the top to Jesse Lingard, who squared the ball back across goal with his first touch. Wayne Rooney was there to bury a header home at full stretch. Within ninety seconds, United had almost lost control of their Champions League group, only for Rooney to put Louis van Gaal’s men in firm control at the top of the group table with the only goal of the match; ninety-five seconds to save Van Gaal’s job.

Rooney went from bearing the brunt of United’s attacking woes to United’s joint top scorer ever, alongside Dennis Law at 237 goals. Van Gaal went from hearing the angry jeers and boos of the home crowd after substituting Anthony Martial — a move that was met with shock and scorn from pundits and fans alike — to those of: “We’re Man United, we want to attack.” Outright mutiny was replaced by the familiar sense of unity United fans pride themselves on, a feeling that has been sliced apart each and every time that United missed another chance during a goal drought lasting over six hours and 400 minutes.

“We could have been defeated again,” said Van Gaal, per United’s official website. “If [Doumbia] had scored then I would be sitting here very differently. But we deserved, totally, to win so I am relieved but I am also proud. It is not so easy. Also, in the golden years of Manchester United I have read they never won against a Russian team at home.”

That is one record that Van Gaal will be relieved to see gone. That, and a goalless streak of the likes not seen since 1992.

Although United have been widely criticized for conservatism over the past few weeks, it was Moscow who sat in deep today. Van Gaal might have been able to spare a defensive midfielder for another attacker, but the home side probed Moscow’s back-line all night long, nonetheless. Early on, Daley Blind lofted a long ball to the run of Juan Mata in behind the defense, and the Spanish midfielder poked the ball straight at Igor Akinfeev on the slide.

Twenty-nine minutes in, Chris Smalling headed Rooney’s free-kick delivery just wide of the far post and Rojo, who let at least three chances go begging, sliced a volley wide at the far post from Ashley Young’s deep cross. Michael Carrick also snatched a low, well-struck volley just wide of the post on the other side of the half, and in search of a goal, Van Gaal brought on Fellaini for Martial, a move that he had previously claimed was never to be made in “normal” circumstances.

In that minute, Van Gaal’s job safety might never have been more strained. Online, 2,600 tweets with the term “Martial” were sent within sixty seconds after the substitution and another 11,000 in the following fifteen minutes, according to the BBC.

“I am not deaf. Of course I heard that,” Van Gaal said of the chorus of boos that echoed around Old Trafford.

Just three minutes later, Rooney left a golden opportunity begging. Lingard drove in from the left and found the diagonal run of Mata, who cut it back to Rooney in turn. The Englishman was left fumbling around with his feet in attempt to bundle the ball home from six yards out, only to snatch at yet another chance. The newspaper editors might already have been rounding up all the photos of Rooney holding his head in his hands in frustrated exasperation for the back-pages, but his late winner changed all that.

“It was a fantastic goal; the preparation was fantastic,” Van Gaal said. The tackle of Marcos Rojo, the pass of Michael Carrick, the cut-back of Jesse Lingard and the header of Wayne Rooney. It was fantastic.”

“Of course it is a relief because you have seen an attacking Manchester United team creating lots of chances against an organized team. It is always difficult to score goals. We had to wait a long time. We controlled the match for 89 minutes and for one minute we didn’t control it.”

The captain steered home a fine header and lead United back out of rough waters. Van Gaal cannot direct the wind, but he can adjust the sails for momentary respite.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.