Manchester United winner was a 's*** goal' despite Juan Mata magic says Wolfsburg boss Dieter Hecking
The Spanish playmaker pulled off an outrageous assist for Chris Smalling's strike
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.Wolfsburg manager Dieter Hecking described Manchester United's winner in Wednesday night's Champions League encounter as a 's*** goal', despite Juan Mata's outrageous assist to set up the strike.
The Spaniard produced a marvellous lay-off, flicking the ball behind him with his heel, over the top of the defence, and setting up defender Chris Smalling to slot home from six yards out. He had previously dispatched a penalty to equalise for the home side, which cancelled out Daniel Caligiuri's fourth-minute opener.
Hecking, however, was not impressed and labelled the goal a "scheiss-tor" in a post-match interview. "We started well and surprised United early on," the former Nurnberg coach said. "The equaliser was a penalty and again, the second goal was unlucky - as we say in German 'a s*** goal'.
"In the last 20 to 25 minutes we pressed them and caused a lot of problems," he added. "Julian Draxler was fouled by Morgan Schneiderlin on 84 minutes. That should have been a red card, and we might have found ourselves against 10 men for the last few minutes."
United manager Louis van Gaal, who is slowly starting to build a consistent winning side, was nevertheless unconvinced my his side's performance and believes the must improve if they are to progress far in the continent's premier club competition.
"We have to improve a lot, like all the players of Manchester United, to be at the top of Europe," said van Gaal. "We have beaten Wolfsburg, I am very happy and the players are very happy, but we have to improve on the second-half performance.
"We have to know that and I have said that also to the players. That is why we are here, to improve ourselves and to win every game."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments