Winning is the only cast-iron way to control the message in football. So after Ruben Amorim’s various recent rhetorical wrong turns this added-time, sixth victory of a chequered 16-game Manchester United reign was needed.
On 88 minutes it seemed very far from on as Harry Maguire missed a header to enable Cyriel Dessers to steal in and equalise with aplomb. But, then, Bruno Fernandes’s late strike grabbed the points, his winner following Jack Butland’s odd, back-fisted punch for an own-goal opener that will haunt the No 1 for many a day.
Yet United were again a muted bunch and Scotland’s second-placed team (13 points behind Celtic) should have departed boasting a famous draw with England’s record 20-times champions.
Of United’s late show, Fernandes said: “It’s not about the character. We have to prove that in the 90 minutes – we can’t [only] bring that out when we concede a goal. We concede a late goal and so we have to score a late goal.”
Amorim’s men remain unbeaten in the competition and are in prime position to qualify automatically but a gargantuan task remains. The Portuguese’s side are fragile at the back, lack patterns in midfield, and the attack is phantom-like. We next see them at Fulham, on Sunday, for a 7pm kick-off, where Marco Silva’s team may expose all these faultlines.
One of Amorim’s ill-advised offerings has been how nervous his players have been performing at Old Trafford. This had to play as sweet music to Rangers’ ears who soon profited from hard evidence of this.
In a first start in Europe for United (and only a third for the club) Toby Collyer flapped in midfield, lost possession, Hamza Igamane passed forward, and Altay Bayindir’s goal was threatened by Ridvan Yilmaz. Other losses of cool had Matthijs de Ligt booting the ball straight to a blue shirt, and, when Yilmaz volleyed James Tavernier’s cross, Bayindir’s save was sharp.
Jack Butland punches the ball into his own net to give United the lead. Photograph: Peter Powell/Reuters
Speculative shots from Alejandro Garnacho and Fernandes and an impotent Amad Diallo corner, from the right, were United’s “best” offerings until a slick Joshua Zirkzee control and spin and rove along the left. Suddenly Rangers were turned but when the striker crossed no colleague ghosted in to meet this.
The same route – United’s left – splayed the visitors a second time, via Diogo Dalot, a Garnacho effort was deflected out, and Diallo’s resulting corner created the opener – or so Amorim’s team thought.
De Ligt rose and headed home but Leny Yoro was adjudged – harshly – by the referee, Erik Lambrechts, to have felled Robin Pröpper.
A kind analysis of United would say they were patient, measuring their foe as part of a ploy to dismantle them at the apt moment. A less benevolent take would point to a lack of tempo, flair, and anyone – Diallo apart, in flashes – able to wrest the game their way.
Cyriel Dessers equalises for Rangers. Photograph: Dave Thompson/AP
That was until a cunning Fernandes shimmy that wrongfooted the Rangers rearguard was followed by a pass that sprang Diallo and his attempt caused Butland to save. Here, a rare chance for the United congregation to stretch their vocal cords.
The 3,000-plus in the away end had far more to cheer – as when Tavernier, their captain, flighted in two corners, in succession, which tested Bayindir and his defence. At the other end, a rare Lisandro Martínez blaze had Butland flying into the air to tip away. It earned a corner. Diallo’s delivery, again, yielded nothing, which was the story of United’s first half. So the players jogged off for the break and Amorim needed to somehow inject some fantasy, an X-factor into a unit proving tepid yet again.
A Dalot hoof from near the centre circle that went for a corner was a second-half opener that raised scant hope of a quality increase. Rangers did not punish the Portuguese from this, and neither did Bailey Rice, one of two Philippe Clement changes, when blasting high on ranging in seconds later.
Harry Maguire was Amorim’s change – for De Ligt – for the second 45 minutes and a first act was to wander into Rangers’ area at a Christian Eriksen corner and witness Butland’s hapless fist backwards, and in, that gave United the lead.
Those in red shirts raced to the Dane to congratulate him on a dipping, menacing parabola, while Butland was a portrait of abashment. Amorim greeted the goal with the removal of Yoro for Tyrell Malacia.
To close the contest out the smartest way was to operate deep in the foe’s final third. United did, for a passage, and when an Eriksen free-kick from the left dropped on Maguire’s head he should have beaten Butland at close range, but the ball bounced wide.
To stiffen United up Amorim introduced Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo – for Eriksen and Collyer – but, then, came Dessers’ finish before Fernandes’s fatal blow.
