Marcel Sabitzer blames “stupid goals” for late collapse
Manchester United conceded two late own goals against Sevilla after going down to ten men.
Austrian midfielder Marcel Sabitzer scored his first goals in a Manchester United shirt but was left to rue a late collapse that leaves his side’s Europa League prospects hanging in the balance.
Sabitzer, playing alongside Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes in the midfield, scored twice in the first half to give Erik ten Hag’s men a commanding lead. But their fortunes turned after halftime as United suffered injuries to Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez and conceded two late own goals against Europa League specialists Sevilla.
“Yeah, I have problems finding the right words,” Sabitzer told BT Sport after the game.
“It’s like a rollercoaster game, playing a good first half, we had lots of chances. We had to finish the game off and at the end, it’s a draw, which is not what we wanted.”
The injury to Martinez came after Ten Hag had made his fifth and final substitution, meaning that United were unable to bring on a replacement. The hosts were forced to play the final minutes with ten men.
Sabitzer explained: “The last minutes were strange, with one man down, but as I said, stupid goals and that’s not what we wanted. We’re very frustrated, you cannot concede like this, not focussed until the end and when you’re 2-0 up at home, you must win.”
United still confident of progression
Despite the late collapse and disappointing score line, United did enough in the opening hour to have put the game to bed. There were a number of good openings for the hosts, who were playing without top scorer Marcus Rashford due to injury.
Antony rattled the woodwork with a fierce strike from the right but the Premier League side failed to make their dominance count.
When asked if he felt the team had taken their foot off the pedal, Sabitzer replied: “I don’t think so, but in competitions like this, you have to be focused until the end because you can give the game away.”
“We have to go to Sevilla and get it done there. I think we had to finish the game off. We had the chances, we were confident in the game, I think we controlled the game but unfortunately, we gave easy goals away.”
The second leg will be held at Sevilla’s Roman Sanchez Pizjuan stadium on Thursday, 20 April.