sport news Copenhagen 4-3 Man United: Danes stun 10-man Red Devils with late turnaround to ... trends now
They know a thing or two about fairy tales here in Denmark and for almost 45 minutes last night Rasmus Hojlund could hardly have wished for a better return to his hometown club.
Two goals from the young Dane put Manchester United in total control of this Champions League tie and on course for what looked like a comfortable win in Group A.
If Carlsberg did football games, this was about as good as it could get for United and Hojlund. But this wasn’t a beer advert and it wasn’t Hans Christian Andersen either.
This is Manchester United and it rarely goes according to the script. So when Marcus Rashford was sent off in the 43rd minute for an innocuous looking challenge, the plot began to twist.
FC Copenhagen pulled one goal back and then equalised in 13 minutes added on at the end of the first half, largely due to a medical emergency in the crowd.
Manchester United conceded four times as they lost their Champions League clash against Copenhagen
17-year-old Roony Bardghji came off the bench to score a late winner for the hosts in Denmark
Bruno Fernandes thought he had won the game for United after scoring from the penalty spot in the second half
This is a United team who are starting to find their feet after a very shaky start to the season. Confidence and resilience are starting to creep back into their game.
In the most difficult circumstances with 10 men against resurgent FC Copenhagen who are much better than their place in the group suggests, they regained the lead through captain Bruno Fernandes’ penalty only.
But on a quite bonkers night here in Denmark, FC Copenhagen struck twice in the dying minutes through skipper Lukas Leragher and substitute Roony Bardghji to leave Ten Hag’s side with a mountain to climb to reach the knockout stages.
Copenhagen’s spirited young coach Jacob Neestrup had warned that the atmosphere at Parken Stadium would be ‘100 times’ more intense than when United snatched victory at Old Trafford a fortnight ago, and the natives did their best to ramp it up with a display of banners before kick-off depicting United’s defeat here in 2006.
‘Your Theatre of Nightmares’ declared one. Given that United’s next game is away to Galatasaray in Istanbul, there could be some competition in that regard.
Erik ten Hag made one change to the team that earned him valuable breathing space by beating Fulham on Saturday lunchtime with Rashford returning from injury at the expense of Antony.
The manager’s decision to continue with Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans in central defence was understandable, but it lasted less that quarter of an hour before an injury to Evans brought Raphael Varane off the bench.
By then United were already a goal to the good and Hojlund would have loved being the scorer. Copenhagen turned him from a midfielder into a
