United face exit from Europe

Up 2-0 and 3-1, Manchester United fumble to 3-3 draw against Galatasaray in Champions League

- Dhiman Sarkar

It was another draw but nothing like the 0-0 from 30 years ago when Eric Cantona was shown the red card, Manchester United were eliminated and ‘Welcome to Hell’ became part of Champions League lore. Okay, the atmosphere was like 1993 even though the frenzied 3-3 draw between Manchester United and Galatasaray on Wednesday night wasn’t.

The Ali Semi Yen Stadium, Galatasaray’s home in Istanbul, gives a kind of boxed-in feel, at least on television. The cauldron looked and sounded intimidating, the thunder and lightning making everything frightening as the teams walked out. Within minutes though it had the library-like silence Pat Cummins had spoken of, the Australia captain referring to the 50-over World Cup final in Ahmedabad when Virat Kohli was dismissed.

Alejandro Garnacho had bulged the roof off the net in the 11th minute after a quick exchange of passes between Rasmus Hojlund and Bruno Fernandes. It is important to mention here that the move was begun by Andre Onana’s pass. In a show of how the old order has been erased, Manchester United began by playing back to their goalkeeper in the way Manchester City do. Onana at the half-line evading a challenge and finding Aaron Wan-Bissaka was more proof of how different things were from when David de Gea manned the posts. It is why as part of UEFA’s Technical Study Group Roberto Martinez had said Onana was more of a holding midfielder in the Champions League final.