Manchester United edge past 10-man Benfica after Mile Svilar error gifts Jose Mourinho's men victory
Benfica 0 Manchester United 1: The visitors looked on course for a goalless draw but the young goalkeeper's mistake in between the sticks handed United all three points
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This is a historic European fixture that has seen the launch of George Best and some of the best Manchester United sides, but now also one of the worst errors the Champions League will ever witness. The only aspect tempering any laughter at this game-deciding goal was that the calamity sadly happened to the youngest goalkeeper to ever play in the competition in Benfica’s 18-year-old Mile Svilar.
But if this moment was partly a consequence of the Belgian showing his age, it was also a consequence of Marcus Rashford showing such maturity for his age. He had noticed a certain naivety and brashness in the young goalkeeper going so far off his line and, on 64 minutes, looked to catch him out with a deep free-kick. Svilar actually caught the ball, but wasn’t on balance and only succeeded in taking it over his owb line for the game's sole goal.
United are now so close to the line in this Champions League group, with this 1-0 victory over Benfica in a strangely subdued Estadio Da Luz giving them their third win from three and the nine points that takes them to the brink of qualification for the last 16.
It said much that so many of the United players after the game went up to console the goalkeeper, who so apologetically held his hands up to the home crowd. He was far from the only player on the pitch to make an error, though, and you could say it almost fit a dismal mistake-strewn game that also saw his captain Luisao sent off for a second booking late on.
The irony was that the goalkeeper had actually started the game so assuredly, racing off his line and well out of his box to clear the ball with a spectacular diving header, preventing Romelu Lukaky from getting in on goal. Perhaps he just started it too assuredly, as that willingness to come off his line merely became something to watch, and a sign of what was to come.
It was not a sign of what was to come as regards the pace of the game. That was about as lively as it got for a long time, because United were suddenly so short of the pace they had shown earlier in the season.
They just didn’t have the same energy, the same intensity, the same innovation, making it all the more necessary for a moment of individual ingenuity from Rashford - and a big opposition error.
It remains to be seen whether this is just a temporary blip, but they do seem to have lost some momentum at the moment, particularly Romelu Lukaku. He barely touched the ball in this match, and barely got into the game at all, but then creators like Henrikh Mkhitaryan weren’t exactly feeding him much play.
Neither side could get much play going at all, and there were barely periods of more than four passes put together.
The only players performing to anything like their normal levels were Benfica’s Alex Grimaldo and Nemanja Matic and Rashford.
It said much about United’s display that the defensive midfielder was the only one offering any attacking thrust, in one moment playing a through ball and in another working his way through the Benfica backline with two deftly fluid touches, and it gradually began to have an effect on Rashford if not on the rest of the attack.
It’s difficult not to think that Rashford must have spotted something in the first half and decided to act on it at half-time because he started the second half immediately looking to make life very difficult for the young goalkeeper, attempting speculative shots from all angles.
First there was a long-range volley, then two in-swinging corners, but Svilar clearly hadn’t learned his lesson.
Rashford had learned exactly what to do as he swung in that deep 64th-minute free-kick, and thereby swung the game. It was 1-0, and stayed that way.
Having been so flat, Benfica couldn’t rouse themselves, and couldn’t really trouble United from then on in. The most they offered was a second yellow card for Luisao, essentially confirming United’s third successive win.
This one, so to speak, was handed to them.
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