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Rob DawsonCorrespondent
BERN, Switzerland: This new Manchester United team should have been one night to show their Champions credentials, but in the end it was another night to suggest that there is more to do than just signing Cristiano Ronaldo.
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Despite another goal from the Portuguese superstar, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team lost 2-1 to Young Boys in Bern on Tuesday, a result that was due in large part to playing 55 minutes with 10 men after the unnecessary red card of ‘Aaron Wan-Bissaka and a terrible mistake by Jesse Lingard in stoppage time that gave the Swiss a late winner.
There will also be questions about Solskjaer’s tactics after the posting, as his decision to switch to a five-man midfield defense seemed to invite pressure instead of fighting it.
Young Boys had 19 shots against the two from United, the last of which came in the 25th minute, and the only surprise was that the second goal took so long to arrive. Substitute Jordan Pefok, a U.S. international, finally got it with the final blow of the match.
The good news for Solskjaer is that there are five more games to confirm his claim that his team is ready to win the Champions League, but the Norwegian has lost seven of his 11 games in the competition as United coach. This was meant to be an easy group, but not now.
“In football in general, not just in the Champions League, discipline is an important part of the game,” Solskjaer said afterwards. “Lack of concentration, you make a mistake and you get punished, you already do. Aaron is usually a very, very cunning striker, one of the best in the world, but he gave us a harder task.
“Jesse wants to play safely and loses the pass, concedes the goal; that happens in football.” Harry Hindsight “is a very good player. If Jesse gets that chance again, he spins, spins and throws the ball to the other side.
“You need 10 or 12 points [to qualify], win your games at home, one away from home. We lost the chance to get three points, but we have two games at home next and we have to focus on those two. “
Solskjaer highlighted the new strength of his squad before the trip to Switzerland and took advantage of his options by incorporating Victor Lindelof, Fred and Donny van de Beek into their starting line-up.
There may have been more changes for what would have been, on paper, the easiest day in the United Champions League, but Solskjaer will not have forgotten the six changes he made for the trip to Istanbul Basaksehir last season. The 2-1 defeat to Turkey contributed to an early exit to the group stage, and Solskjaer can only hope that the same result here does not turn out to be a bad omen.
There was no chance Ronaldo would be left out. After scoring twice in his comeback against Newcastle on Saturday, it took just 13 minutes to find the net here, drifting to the back post to nail the ball below Young Boys goalkeeper David von Ballmoos.
It was a dipping freekickby Bruno Fernandes but it didnt quite do enough and hit the bar after beating Bruno Fernandes and his despairing dive. It’s a shame Solskjaer didn’t count the assists because she was good.
It was Ronaldo’s 135th goal in the Champions League in a 177th record appearance in the competition. It wasn’t the prettiest, but that won’t matter to Solskjaer, who has been desperate for a striker who knows how to be in the right place at the right time, and Ronaldo has turned it into an art form. At the very least, it was a more accurate goal effort than what a quarterback discerned during the warm-up, with Ronaldo having to jog and make sure he hadn’t caused any injury.
It should have indicated the start of a comfortable night for United, but any hope in that vanished with a single touch from Wan-Bissaka. With the ball escaping to the hard and artificial surface of the Wankdorf Stadium, the right winger passed over and reached the ankle of Ulysses Garcia. Harry Maguire, Paul Pogba and Fred rushed to replace French referee Francois Letexier, but Wan-Bissaka could not complain. It seemed reckless in real time and got worse with each play.
Solskjaer was remodeled immediately and brought in Diogo Dalot for Jadon Sancho, and United survived the final ten minutes of the first half, although Christian Fassnacht fell with a good chance. The frantic end of the half was enough to convince Solskjaer to change his system in the half, taking Raphael Varane for Van de Beek and moving on to a three-man defense. It was a bad day for the usually speedy Van de Beek. The mud seemed to slow him down.
But if the idea was to stick to what they had, it wouldn’t work. Von Ballmoos was a spectator throughout the second half and Ronaldo, isolated ahead with no runners around him, was finally replaced.
Moumi Ngamaleu equalized with a deflection from Luke Shaw after the hour, but United looked like they could hold on to a point until Pefok accepted Lingard’s bad pass to score the winner in the 95th minute.
Maguire then insisted that the tactical change had been the right decision, and Solskjaer also defended the change.
“The signs were there for the last five minutes of the first half,” Solskjaer said. “In the second half, they were going to get crosses in the box, and Rapha, Victor and Harry did well. It was the best way to control them, but we should have done more with the ball.”
United have had many poor nights in Switzerland, including defeats against Basel in 2011 and 2017, and that was another one. After the delirium of Ronaldo’s arrival at home over the weekend, the brutal reality that there is still work to be done was verified.