Luke: Paul is world class

Luke Shaw was once again part of a United defence that stood firm against Italian giants AC Milan on Thursday evening.

Alongside Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bisska, with Dean Henderson between the sticks, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's defence kept a clean sheet for the sixth time in seven games.

Following the 1-1 result at Old Trafford last week, the Reds had to score to make it to the Europa League quarter-finals and half-time substitute Paul Pogba got our crucial winner only two minutes after entering the pitch.

Speaking to the BT Sport and MUTV after the win against the Rossoneri, our. 23 delivered an honest assessment after a brilliant result in Italy.

"Obviously I’m very happy that we’re through," Shaw said before analysing our performance at the iconic stadium.

"I think the lads will agree, we weren’t good at all. In the first half, we were awful. The first 10-15 minutes, we started well, kept control of the ball. It’s like a switch. We turned off and we were very sloppy and kept giving away stray balls, bringing pressure on ourselves."

He then went on to applaud matchwinner Pogba, who made his first United appearance since the 3-3 draw with Everton back in February.

"Maybe we were lucky but in the second half, it always helps when you have a world-class player to come on and make a difference," Shaw said before emphasising the influence of the midfield man.

"He did that, it’s brilliant to have him back. The most important thing was the result and getting through to the next round, no matter how we played."

The Frenchman feigned to shoot which bamboozled the AC Milan defence for a split second before our no.6 elegantly, and from an acute angle inside the area, fired the ball into the roof of the net.

"In tight spaces, he's always been brilliant," our left-back added. 

"I'll be honest, we've missed him a lot in the last few weeks that he's been out. The squad is bigger now, the injured players are coming back, so it's all positives that players are coming back and we'll hopefully have a bigger squad on Sunday."

Thursday was a big day for Shaw, who also celebrated his reintroduction into the England set-up. Alongside Dean Henderson, Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford and on-loan midfielder Jesse Lingard, the 25-year-old will be a part of Gareth Southgate's squad for Three Lions' World-Cup qualifiers later this month.

"Of course, it’s a massive honour to be selected for your country," he said with a smile on his face.

"I’ve been out of the fold for quite a while and I had an ambition to get back into the side and into the squad, and luckily I’ve done that.

"Of course, I just need to keep going and I’m really looking forward to getting back into the England squad and being there.”