Early morning October 4 (Vietnam time), Manchester United will visit Porto in the second match of Europa League 2024-2025. This is considered the first of two matches for coach Erik ten Hag to save his seat.
The Dutch coach lined up Rasmus Hojlund as a striker, while the central midfield pairing included two experienced names - Casemiro and Christian Eriksen.
Knowing the current situation of Man United, the home team entered the game at the highest possible speed. Continuously applying pressure, fiercely competing and also quickly showing their tactical intentions with crosses into the penalty area, mainly from the right wing.
However, the Portuguese representative was doused with cold water, not just once but twice. In the 7th minute, Marcus Rashford broke through from the left wing, passed 2 defenders and shot into the near corner. It was also quite fortunate that goalkeeper Diogo Costa did not block firmly, allowing Man United to score.
In the same way, in the 20th minute, Rashford crossed and Hojlund appeared in the penalty area, decisively finishing from a narrow angle, doubling the gap for the "Red Devils".
This is Man United's best start of the season, better than the 3-0 win over Southampton or the 7-0 win over Barnsley, when the second goals only came in the 41st and 35th minutes.
Of course, Man United fans soon thought that Ten Hag would be saved in an exciting scenario, so that he could continue to complete his mission in the next away match at Aston Villa in the Premier League this weekend.
However, 2 goals is still not enough to defeat Porto, especially when Man United did not show the "collective" aspect in the way they deployed. Still with the determined tactics, Porto had 2 equalizers within 7 minutes (27 to 34) from Pepe - Brazilian striker, and Samu Aghehowa.
Aghehowa and Bruno Fernandes received yellow cards in the first half, Rashford could not continue in the second half due to injury.
Just five minutes after the break, Aghehowa scored again, helping Porto lead 3-2. After taking the lead, Porto almost ceded control of the ball to the English representative, with 62% possession and 18 shots.
But interestingly, the goal did not come when the “Red Devils” still had enough players on the field. In the 81st minute, Bruno received a second yellow card and had to leave the field.
It seemed like Man United's chance to score was about to be snuffed out, but in the first minute of extra time in the second half, Harry Maguire - who replaced Lisandro Martinez in the 78th minute - jumped high to head the ball from a corner kick, equalizing the score to 3-3.
This is Man United's second consecutive draw in the Europa League this season, and also their fourth consecutive away game without a win in the European Cup, despite scoring three goals.
In other notable matches, Tottenham won 2-1 at Ferencvaros, Ajax - Ten Hag's old team, drew 1-1 at Slavia Prague when a player was also sent off, AS Roma lost 0-1 at Elfsborg, Lyon won 4-1 at Rangers.
On the current rankings, 5 teams have won 2 matches: Lazio, Lyon, Tottenham, FCSB and Anderlecht. Man United has 2 points, ranked 21st.
