Manchester United ‘devastated’ and deserved to win Europa League semi-final, says Harry Maguire
The defence came under fire for the manner of conceding the winning goal
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Harry Maguire says the Manchester United squad have been hard-hit by another semi-final defeat, but insists the performance on the night was good enough to warrant a win.
The Red Devils took an early lead in the Europa League semi-final thanks to a Bruno Fernandes penalty, but a Suso equaliser and Luuk de Jong winner sent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side out.
Club captain Maguire pointed to a string of missed chances for his side early in the second half as evidence of superiority on the night and says the whole team must strive for improvement.
“It’s difficult, the boys are devastated,” he told BT Sport at full time.
“[We] created numerous chances, you’ve got to win the game. They’ve punished us. We’ve been ruthless at times this year but not tonight.
“We started with a high press but then let them out too easy. They didn’t create many chances, they’ve worked it down the right and we’ve got to do better.
“We conceded from two crosses, it’s not good enough. But we worked our socks off, we deserved to go through but fell short for the third semi-final this season.”
Despite a third-place finish in the Premier League—which guarantees Champions League action next season—and going deep in each cup competition representing a season of progress, Maguire says it’s not enough for a club of United’s stature to end a season empty-handed.
“Losing isn’t acceptable, getting to semi-finals isn’t acceptable. We’ve got to concentrate on taking another step. People will say it’s a good season but do we want to finish third next season? No, for sure.
“We want to win silverware, we got to three semis. It was disappointing in the League Cup, we didn’t turn up in the FA Cup. Tonight we deserved it.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments