Onana’s nightmare has Man United on Champions League brink

ISTANBUL — “Your nightmare is back again” learn one of many banners at Galatasaray’s Rams Park. For André Onana, who’s making a behavior of Champions League howlers, it was very true.

After errors in opposition to Bayern Munich away and Galatasaray at house already this season, the Cameroon goalkeeper made two catastrophic errors to reward the Turkish champions a 3-3 attract Istanbul on Wednesday and depart Manchester United’s Champions League hopes hanging by a thread.

Erik ten Hag’s staff twice had the sport gained at 2-0 and 3-1 up, however with one spherical of fixtures left, they’re anchored to the underside of Group A. Only a staff as frail as this United one might rating 9 targets in three European away video games and fail to win any of them.

In their 5 Champions League video games this season, they’ve conceded 14 targets. Only Royal Antwerp, who’ve misplaced each recreation within the group stage, have conceded extra.

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“We win and lose together,” Ten Hag mentioned after the match, refusing accountable Onana, his £43 million summer season signing from Inter Milan. “You see the progress in this team. I take many positives from this game. Some mistakes, we played like I want my team to play. It was enjoyable to watch that: proactive, dynamic, brave and we scored great goals. Even after we had some setbacks, we kept going until the end and we should have won with big chances from Scott McTominay and Facundo Pellistri.

“Of course, I’m upset as a result of we should always have managed the sport higher, we are going to be taught from that.”

The biggest frustration for Ten Hag will be that before Onana’s mistakes, his players had done the hard bit and, for large spells, were by far the better team. The teams walked out onto a sodden pitch after torrential rain in the Turkish capital for more than 24 hours and were greeted with a huge banner that read “Welcome to hell,” but United had quietened the fiery atmosphere in the stadium inside the first 20 minutes.

First it was Alejandro Garnacho who, after an overhead kick for the ages against Everton on Sunday, had the confidence to walk into hell and tell everyone to calm down. After a flowing team move, the 19-year-old smashed his finish into the roof of the net and then rubbed it in with a “calma, calma” celebration in front of the Galatasaray fans, who responded with a volley of missiles thrown from the stands.

Captain Bruno Fernandes was left to pick up the objects and remove them from the pitch before coming up with a missile of his own.

Picking up the ball from Luke Shaw on the left, he took a couple of strides forward and launched a rocket into the top corner with his right foot from 25 yards. His celebration was to slide on his knees and cover his ears, but he needn’t have bothered as the ear-splitting noise was replaced with stunned silence.

Ten Hag spoke afterward about his team being better at “recreation administration,” but that felt like it ignored the fact that without Onana’s contribution, they would have almost certainly won as Hakim Ziyech was twice the beneficiary of free-kick goals that should have been saved.

The first wrong-footed Onana as it slid past his right knee, but his mistake for the second — after McTominay had scored United’s third — was the kind that ends up on DVDs of football’s biggest blunders. He perhaps thought Anthony Martial would head Ziyech’s cross clear, but without a touch from the French forward, the United No. 1 ended up being surprised by the pace of the ball and punching it into his own net.

He could do little to stop substitute Kerem Aktürkoglu’s bullet finish to make it 3-3. By that stage, though, the damage had already been done.

At the final whistle, Onana stood crestfallen on the pitch and had to be consoled by his backup Altay Bayindir, Galatasaray goalkeeper Fernando Muslera and Ziyech, as his United teammates trudged off down the tunnel.

“He is OK,” Ten Hag said of Onana. “As I mentioned, it’s not about people. Of course, particular person errors in soccer could make a distinction and you’re taking duty for it, however it’s all the time concerning the staff. This staff is nice, all of the gamers within the squad are good and deserve the perfect, to play for Manchester United, as a result of they’re good gamers. And that counts for the entire squad.

“As a team, we have to learn because we are conceding too many goals and it is unnecessary and avoidable. I am sure our team is experienced enough and capable enough to manage this, and we will do better.”

Vulnerability on the again has turn into the story of the group stage marketing campaign, however no matter whether or not Ten Hag desires to confess it, Onana has contributed greater than most with huge errors in pivotal moments. The newest episode of his recurring nightmare has left United going through Champions League oblivion.