Wolfsburg beats Man United 3-2 in Champions League

The surprising 1-0 win by Sevilla over Juventus dropped the Italians into second place of Group D.

Manchester United’s Champions League hopes are over after a 3-2 defeat to Wolfsburg in dramatic circumstances at the Volkswagen Arena.

Things looked bright for United early.

There were unsettling scenes after the final whistle in Wolfsburg, though, as fans were forced to stay inside the ground until the all-clear was given after a suspect package was found in the stadium’s vehicle park. With a one-on-one with the keeper, Martial slotted home the sixth goal of his United career.

The hosts replied just four minutes later when left-back Ricardo Rodriguez, who injured himself in the process, fired in a free-kick which centre-back Naldo guided into the back of the United net. However, it still wasn’t panic time for United.

While we predicted in August Manchester United would advance out of the group because of three other teams’ perceived weaknesses, in doing so we overlooked the scale of decline Manchester United has experienced in recent years.

“I can’t defend myself, because we are out of the Champions League and every word I say will be wrong”, he said with United fourth in the Premier League table. When you firstly give the goal and then when a few players come and say to you, you change your mind, it is odd in my opinion. But just as quickly, any remaining illusions were dashed when Wolfsburg went ahead in the 84th minute and PSV did the same in the 85th.

But PSV hit back through Luuk de Jong and Davy Propper to progress to the knock-out stages. However, moments later, Wolfsburg delivered the first of two sucker punches. First, Naldo took his second goal from a corner in the 84th minute.

“Now it is over in the Champions League”. “The Premier League is the best in the sense of atmosphere, ambience”.

“Even if they win the league or come second or third, it’s just papering over the cracks”, finished Owen.

“It’s embarrassing, I was in a squad that went in the Europa League, it’s an embarrassment”.

As for the depth issue, the obvious – if not always immediately effective – solution is to splash cash in the January transfer window.

“The way they are playing is not good enough”. We have time to think about our next opponent, but as I said before, all the teams into the next round are experienced Champions League teams.

The next question is who gets to spend that cash.

Van Gaal has been heavily criticised for his tiresome style of football so far this season, but while United improved in front of goal and scored twice through Anthony Martial and a Josuha Guilavogui own-goal, their depleted defence unusually conceded three times. The rumors have already started.

Van Gaal’s men thought they’d equalised on the stroke of half-time when Jesse Lingard curled directly into Benaglio’s bottom corner from the left.

There are so many good teams.

“If you beat a team like Manchester United, you must have done something right”, midfielder Julian Draxler said.