Manchester United knocked out of the Champions League after suffering defeat in Germany.
Manchester United have been dumped out of the UEFA Champions League at the group stages following their 3-2 defeat to Wolfsburg on Tuesday night.
The Reds fought hard in an entertaining game, as Louis van Gaal opted for a more adventurous, attacking line-up from the start to try and earn three points in Germany.
Marouane Fellaini, Memphis Depay and Guillerme Varela started the game for United, with Michael Carrick surprisingly left on the bench from the start. Ashley Young was also on the bench along with Andreas Pereira and Paddy McNair.
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Once the game started, it was clear van Gaal had switched his formation slightly. Fellaini was playing slightly ahead of Schweinsteiger in a variation of a 4-1-4-1 and it worked early on. Juan Mata was playing in his favoured No.10 role and got an early assist.
Daley Blind played the ball between the lines for the Spaniard to turn and feed Anthony Martial, who timed his run perfectly in behind Dante before taking a touch and sliding the ball past Diego Benaglio. The joy didn’t last long though, as Wolfsburg equalised just three minutes later.
A free-kick was swung into the penalty area by Swiss full-back Ricardo Rodriguez and Brazilian defender Naldo lost Chris Smalling in the penalty area and volleyed the ball accurately into the bottom corner.
The tide of the game changed at that point as the Bundesliga side began to create more chances, while United struggled to break through a resilient defence. Julian Draxler came close before he carved open the Manchester United defence to put Wolfsburg into the lead.
He picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area and jinked his way past Bastian Schweinsteiger before playing a lovely one-two with Max Kruse to get into the penalty, only to square the ball to Portuguese international Vieirinha for a simple tap in and a superb goal.
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United continued to attempt to break through Wolfsburg but struggled to create for a while. However on the stroke of half-time there was controversy.
Jesse Lingard’s cross-cum-shot found its way into the far corner and Manchester United thought it was 2-2, only for the flag to be raised almost 10 seconds later for an apparent offside. Replays show that Juan Mata was in an offside position when the ball came in and was inadvertently in the goalkeeper’s eyesight, which caused the Swiss stopper to dive late. Eventually the goal was disallowed and United’s momentum was gone.
The second half started and Wolfsburg came out with the aim of keeping the ball but van Gaal’s men pressed high and were intent on getting an early goal.
It didn’t quite happen like that as Martial and Fellaini came close before United finally pulled one back with eight minutes to go in the game.
A corner kick was swung in by Daley Blind from the left hand side and found Marouane Fellaini at the back post. The Belgian headed the ball into the ground and French midfielder Paul Guilavogi looped an attempted clearance over his own goalkeeper and into his own goal for 2-2.
Straight from kick-off though, Wolfsburg earned a corner and when Naldo lost his marker Michael Carrick the Brazilian earned his second goal of the night and slammed his header into the ground, off Daley Blind, to take a 3-2 lead and end Manchester United’s hopes of qualification.
To add insult to injury, Chris Smalling went down late on with what looked like a knee injury but with Manchester United having already made all three substitutions he was put back on the pitch as a striker and finished the game.
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The defeat means that van Gaal’s side fall into the Europa League in the new year, with Louis van Gaal and Marouane Fellaini stating after the game that they haven’t spoken about the tournament and won’t be paying attention to it until it comes around.