Scott McTominay says the whole team have to take responsibility for Manchester United’s bleak Champions League predicament after Andre Onana’s mistakes and a lack of killer instinct cost them at Galatasaray.
Having lost three of their opening four Group A matches, Erik ten Hag’s side managed to throwaway a two-goal second-half lead in Istanbul as a pulsating, helter-skelter clash ended 3-3.
Wednesday’s result leaves United bottom of the pool with only the home clash with already qualified Bayern Munich to come in a fortnight’s time.
🗣️ @McTominay10 insists the lads are focused on the next game and will look to learn from tonight's result 👇
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) November 29, 2023
Advertisement
Copenhagen’s draw in Germany later that day keeps the Red Devils’ faint chances of progressing alive, but they must win their final game and hope Copenhagen draw with Galatasaray.
“We have to wait and see,” McTominay told the PA news agency. “It’s not in our hands.
“We’ve put ourselves in that position and we have to own it and that’s football.
“We kept our cool really well, I felt like throughout large portions of the game.
“Obviously towards the end it gets a little bit like a basketball game where everyone’s up and down and some tired legs and stuff like that.
“We need to rest, recover and there’s is a big game coming up on Saturday, which we will be ready for as well.”
United have little time to recover from their draining night in Turkey as attention turns to Saturday evening’s Premier League trip to Newcastle.
All eyes are sure to be on goalkeeper Onana in the North East after the summer signing endured another chastening Champions League night for the Red Devils.
Guilty of gaffes away to Bayern and in the reverse fixture against Galatasaray, the Cameroon international was somehow beaten by two Hakim Ziyech free-kicks on Wednesday.
The second was particularly shocking and proved the catalyst to the hosts’ comeback but McTominay refused to blame him and acknowledged that outfield players should have put the game to bed.
“We’re so disappointed not to come away with more goals than three, to be honest,” said the midfielder, who had put United 3-1 up in the 55th minute.
“If you had said that to us before the evening started (we would score three) we would have been delighted with that, hopefully get another clean sheet.
“But football’s football. There’s mistakes and different things that can happen in the game and it’s partly our fault at the other end of the pitch for not killing the game as well.
“We had control and we were playing some good stuff.
“That’s football. It can happen and there’s no individuals in this team. We all want to be a collective and push each other forwards together.
“But, yeah, there’s another game on Saturday which we’re looking forward to and we’ll learn from this one for sure.”
McTominay added that “whatever happens at both ends of the pitch we need to stick together” as United look to shake off their challenging Champions League disappointment.
A frustrating night, but we'll keep fighting until the very end.#MUFC || #UCL pic.twitter.com/KD2sQRB6r0
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) November 29, 2023
Newcastle have also been in midweek action away to Paris St Germain and St James’ Park is set to provide another hostile environment for Ten Hag’s team.
“There’s no intimidation in football,” McTominay added. “You’ve just got to go there and take it on its head on and go for it.
“That’s the way that this team wants to operate – we want to go and fight every challenge head on and that’s it.
“There’s no ducking and diving out of situations. We want to go and push ourselves and test ourselves against some really good teams as well.”
