Manchester United qualify for Champions League knockout stages after Marouane Fellaini’s late winner spares blushes against Young Boys
THE little squirt told a story.
Jose Mourinho, fighting water bottles and very nearly coming off second best after Marouane Fellaini’s 91st-minute winner, has maintained his record of reaching the knockout phase of the Champions League.
Manchester United’s manager gets where water can’t.
He was quick off the draw, reminding the world that he has reached the last 16 in every season he has been a Champions League coach.
At 0-0 they were heading for the Mestalla in two weeks’ knowing defeat against Valencia would end their Champions League ambition.
Goals, the first scored by United at home in European competition this season, change games.
Mourinho’s go-to guy got it, with Fellaini burying a low drive to the right of Young Boys keeper David von Ballmoos. Off. The. Hook.
It was an agricultural goal, a throwback to hit and hope football served up on cabbage patch pitches.
The Special One did not care.
He was busy playing the tough guy, the macho man down on the touchline beating up the water bottle carriers in celebration.
The bottles came off second best - but only just.
Valencia away is a dead rubber now.
They are in this powerful position because of their smash-and-grab win in Turin and this streaky victory over Young Boys.
The Swiss side played like men.
They suffocated United, with this restless crowd getting increasingly agitated as the minutes ticked by.
Mourinho’s mix and match strategy – dropping Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku after their shockers against Palace on Saturday – comes across as chaotic.
WHO PLAYED WELL? Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini with only goal of another drab game at Old Trafford against Young Boys
He used to be the arch analyst, plotting tactics, formations and team selection weeks in advance.
The Special One is just making it up as he goes along now.
This was a skinny win, with Fellaini scoring after 91 depressing minutes at Old Trafford.
Luke Shaw launched a long ball forward, Lukaku flicked it on and Fellaini lashed in the winner.
It gives them a Champions League breather, with Fellaini getting them off the hook.
They have three days to prepare for Southampton, to sort out their wretched Premier League form at St Mary’s.
There is no escape for United, no escape for Mourinho.
They go there on the back of this streaky win against Young Boys, scoring for the first time at home in the Champions League.
There is so much anger, so much frustration as the fans – and players - try to work out what the hell Mourinho is trying to do.
He started Marcus Rashford, spearheading United’s attack after losing faith with Lukakau.
This is where he wants to play, full of running while Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard do the dirty work behind him.
He was game all right, bounding around the pitch in search of United’s stomach-settling opener.
At times it felt like it would never come.
He had some big first half chances, notably when Lingard touched on Luke Shaw’s intelligent angled ball through midfield.
The pace, the power, the penetration of the move was exceptional, with Rashford in the clear and the whites of the posts in his eyeline.
David von Ballmoos came haring out of goal, closing down the angles before Rashford sent his chip sailing over the Young Boys Bar.
The Special One gave it the familiar “I told you so”, the stare towards the bench that suggests Rashford will never be fully trusted.
Shame, that.
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He needs someone to draw all that talent out of him, for Mourinho to give him the run of games he craves.
The Special One is entitled to be frustrated, to feel short-changed when Rashford’s touch is rusty, or when his decision-making lets him down.
At times his distribution was way off United’s demanding standards.
When he was in full flight, skipping down the left wing four minutes before the break, he looked the business.
At least he gave it a go out there.
There are others, such as Fred, who can count themselves very fortunate indeed to be wearing a United shirt.
It is probably a bit uncharitable to compare him with Eric Djemba-Djemba, the midfield misfit brought in from Nantes 15 years ago, just yet.
Even so, those unflattering remarks will soon be heading his way.
With 25 minutes to go, Mourinho was entitled to send for reinforcements.
You have to wonder whether Fred will ever be seen again after he was hauled off and replaced by Pogba.
Alongside him Mourinho hoped his 100kg striker Lukaku would be worth his weight in goals after hooking Lingard.
It was desperate.
The panic was setting in, with David De Gea pulling off a world class stop to his right to deny Ulisses Garcia putting Young Boys in front.
It was a wonder stop, deflecting off Chris Smalling and Young Boys right-back Kevin Mbabu.
United fans demanded a response, with Fellaini coming up trumps deep into injury time to give them this streaky 1-0 win.
They are into the last 16 now, sitting at European football’s top table after scoring at home for the first time in the Champions League.
Drink that in, Manchester United fans.