Manchester, Oct 4: Manchester United crashed to a 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League at Old Trafford as their alarming form under Erik ten Hag continued.
Rasmus Hojlund had twice given United the lead but the Turkish team pegged them back each time before Andre Onana’s error led to Casemiro being red carded in his attempt to salvage the situation. Mauro Icardi missed the penalty but made amends with the winner.
Questions will be asked of Onana, uncertain throughout, but much of the defence were culpable for the capitulation. Having lost to Bayern Munich in their opening Champions League game, there is much work to do to progress beyond the group stage now.
Ten Hag’s concerns are more immediate given that United have now lost six of their 10 matches this season. Elsewhere, Arsenal lost their star winger and then the game at Lens, failing to seize control of their UEFA Champions League Group B with a 2-1 loss at the Estadio Bollaert-Delelis on Tuesday.The Gunners led through a Gabriel Jesus assisted by Bukayo Saka, but Saka was soon injured and Lens scored the match’s remaining two goals to secure a second point in group stage play. Mikel Arteta gave an update on Saka after the game, describing the injury as “something muscular” and not declaring the player in or out of the lineup. Arsenal had a feel-good away pounding of Bournemouth at the weekend and hadn’t lost game since a May 20 loss at Nottingham Forest, but this defeat carries much more meaning.Lens star Elye Wahi — linked with a Premier League move for much of the summer — set up an Adrien Thomasson goal in the 25th minute before scoring himself 44 minutes later. It’s a huge win for Lens, which had been struggling this season, just above the bottom three with seven points from its first seven matches in Ligue 1. In other match, Bayern Munich needed a late goal from Mathys Tel to continue its winning streak in Champions League group-stage games with a 2-1 win at Copenhagen.
With the score at 1-1 on Tuesday, youth and experience combined for the winning goal as 34-year-old Thomas Müller picked up a pass from Harry Kane, held off two defenders and then played in 18-year-old French forward Tel to blast the ball into the net in the 83rd minute.
It was a rare moment of cohesive, creative team play from Bayern after the German champion spent most of the game frustrated by Copenhagen’s deep, compact defense and was vulnerable to the Danish team’s counterattacks.“They defended very narrow and very compact and it was hard to open that up,” Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel told broadcaster Amazon Prime Video.Tel’s goal extended Bayern’s remarkable run of wins in Champions League group-stage games to 15 since a draw with Atletico Madrid in 2020, a competition record. (AP)
