We always make life difficult for ourselves, Fergie used to say. In his day, more often than not, we fought through those self-imposed difficulties to confound rivals and media commentators alike to come out on top. Nowadays, the difficulties just seem to lead to yet more difficulties. Here, even a draw would have left the Reds potentially one game away from qualification from the group. Now, it looks like it could go to the wire.
The goal that put United behind after just ninety seconds was, to put it mildly, a bit special. With his back to goal, Sow got his foot to a left-wing cross with the kind of exquisite overhead kick that even keepers as good as De Gea can do nothing about.
Although Fenerbahce continued to carry a real threat on the break - more of which later - the Reds dominated possession for the remainder of the first half, only to see their often incisive passing play fail to yield a result. When United carved out a real clear-cut chance, Rooney's touch let him down after being set clear by Martial.
A limping Paul Pogba left the field to add to a growing United injury list and his replacement Ibrahimovic immediately brought a fiery presence to the field, in all senses of the word. You felt he was bound to have some sort of impact on the game.
Sadly, he faded out of it in the second half, but no more than the rest of the United team. If the half-time substitution that brought Mata on for Schneiderlin was intended to introduce a more attacking formation, somehow it had the reverse effect. The Reds looked nervy and struggled to string a decent series of passes together. Fenerbahce were set up to hit them on the break and that's exactly what they did, Ibrahimovic finally having the wrong kind of impact on the game when he committed the foul that allowed Lens to step up and score from one of the most perfect free kicks you'll ever see.
The two goals will probably give De Gea nightmares for weeks. His team mates looked like they were in the midst of one of their own as they struggled to get any kind of hold on the game and the most likely outcome seemed to be a third for the Turks, who squandered a series of chances as they broke freely through the gaping holes in the United midfield.
Out of the blue, it was Rooney who scored with the night's third terrific goal, a stunner from outside the box. He might even have snatched an equaliser when Ismael rose to clear with his head from just inside the post. However, it was a late flurry rather than the sustained onslaught United had needed and the Reds stand probably only one further poor performance away from Europa League elimination.
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