Fergie time doing a cameo in this one. When United fans look back on this game, they will realize their team is so far behind the likes of Bayern, PSG and Liverpool. The first half belonged to the yellow submarine. Villarreal were guilty of missed opportunities and will disappoint Unai Emery given that the back four by Man United was a makeshift one with Maguire, Wan-Bissaka and Shaw all out. How Ole set up the team was what most pundits were making noise for, one holding midfielder with the other in an advanced role. McTominay the defensive, with Pogba advanced. Bruno Fernandes a much improved performance from Villa at the weekend, very influential in the second stanza. Villarreal should have buried the chances that De Gea saved top notch, first from Danjuma then a header from Paco Alcacer.

The spark that United needed came from the Villarreal goal by Paco in the 53rd minute. Diogo Dalot was off the pace a whole of a lot of time in this match and was exposed again in the build up to the goal. The equalizer came not so long afterwards. A training ground routine finished by Brazilian Alex Telles, great vision by Bruno. Key top the goal was to keep it as low as possible, even if it was off target there will always be a chance of a deflection in there. I get the feeling Ole sends in the subs too late in games for them to have an impact. Cavani came on late , Jesse Lingard even later. When they did the attempts at goal went up significantly. Keeping Ronaldo ended up being a good decision. The Portuguese with his 135th UCL goal and it was a late one. He was pushed into the right wing position on account of the substitutions and change of formation in a throw back to days gone by. Great link up with Lingard. United off the mark after match day one debacle in Berne.