Manchester United 1-0 Copenhagen
B’Fernandes (95 pen)
It wasn’t an easy match as some may have thought Copenhagen played with attitude against a star studded United keeping them a whole 90 minutes without a confirmed goal. Copenhagen played a brave game in the early stages, pressing United where possible and Fred got caught in possession but was let off the hook as Mohamed Daramy and Jens Stage saw shots blocked following his sloppy play.
Manchester United however were all over Copenhagen having more than 30 shots towards the Copenhagen goal but none were good enough for the back of the net. United had a couple of goals disallowed for offside most notable of them all was the amazing goal scored by Mason Greenwood sent through on goal by Marcus Rashford. The Assistant Referee missed the offside call but the eyes of the VAR were wide enough to see it.
The goal was overturned and United continued the searched for the goal. A highly spirited Copenhagen goalkeeper, Karl-Johan Johnsson made 13 saves to deny Manchester United a goal. That was the most any goalkeeper has made in a single Europa league game since the competition was rebranded in 2010.
The game settled into a more predictable pattern after the break with United making the Copenhagen defence work hard to preserve their clean sheet. Rashford had the ball in the net on 57 minutes after Greenwood’s strike had rocketed back off the post, but, the striker was correctly flagged offside.
Fernandes became the latest to hit the goal frame when trying his luck from 25 yards, with the Danish side remaining a threat as long as the match was scoreless.
Former Everton full-back Bryan Oviedo was thwarted by a brilliant block from Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who made up for his wasteful performance in the final third with a quality piece of defending.
Johnsson started to come to the party as the game wore on, making a superb one-handed save which stopped Martial bending home from 25 yards.
Extra-time was needed and the extra quality in the United ranks came to the fore.
Martial wriggled through to get away another shot saved by Johnsson and had just got back to his feet when Andreas Bjelland bundled into the back of him when collecting a Juan Mata pass.
Fernandes did the rest from the penalty spot, deciding against using his delayed spot-kick technique in preference of just simply firing one into the top corner.
It was one-way traffic now as United hunted a second goal but Johnsson was impressing in the Copenhagen goal and he superbly denied Fernandes, before halting the impressive Mata with his feet and seeing Victor Lindelof hit a post. Eventually a second goal was not required as Copenhagen succumbed to their exertions in the draining heat and rarely laid a glove on United in the closing stages.
The match ended with United Claiming a 1-nil victory over the Danish side. They will now look to the Semi-finals were they might face either Wolves or Sevilla who go head to head in today’s UEL encounter.
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