Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Solskjaer positive after Club Brugge draw

Thursday 20 February 2020 21:38

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was eager to draw on the positives as Manchester United fought back to claim a 1-1 draw with Club Brugge in the first leg of our Europa League last 32 tie.

After falling behind to a chipped effort from Emmanuel Dennis in the 15th minute, the Reds restored parity when Anthony Martial latched onto a poor throw-in from Maxim De Cuyper and confidently finished past former Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.

Despite the introduction of Odion Ighalo and Bruno Fernandes after the break, the scores remained level and United will take an away goal back to Old Trafford for next week's second leg.

Speaking to BT Sport, MUTV and in his post-match press conference afterwards, the boss gave his verdict on the performance, the current form of Martial and looked ahead to the return fixture in Manchester...

Solskjaer on Brugge, Martial and the Bruno effect Video

Solskjaer on Brugge, Martial and the Bruno effect

Ole discusses 'a game of errors' and Brugge's fortunate opening goal...

WE KNOW WE CAN PLAY BETTER

“It was difficult conditions out there. It was almost like astroturf. It was bouncing, the ball is very, very quick and lively, so anything could happen and we got the away goal. Anto [Anthony Martial], a very, very good goal, individual goal. He worked hard to win the ball off him and was composed to put it in, so we’re happy with that, but we know we can play better.”

A GAME OF ERRORS

“There's many things to their goal that we can look at. Of course we can’t switch off when they’ve got a goalkick. Apparently it was our corner, it should have been, and the ball was rolling when he kicked it. Apart from that we should still look after that one long pass. Football is a game of errors and we’ve made one there and they got a goal from it, but we scored from their error, so that evens out and I’d rather 1-1 than 0-0.”

THE CONFIDENCE OF MARTIAL

“He's confident in front of goal now. It was a frustrating day until that moment for Anthony. He didn’t get a lot of service, they defended well, man-marking, following men, so there was not a lot of space, and the ball was so lively on that pitch. So we'll take that result, go back home and prepare for next week."

BRUNO SHOWED WHAT HE CAN DO

 “He made a huge difference straight away. Of course it’s important that we give him time to settle in, but we needed to get more on the ball and get more composed and hopefully get the goal. He created some chances and showed what he can do.”

DEALING WITH A QUICK TURNAROUND

"A Monday game and then a Thursday game means there is less recovery and there's a game again on Sunday, so you’ve got to think about the bigger picture, not just one game. We made the decisions that we made and we’ve got an away result. We’ve got a draw, a score draw. They’ve got to come to Old Trafford, score, and if they want a win they need to score more than one, so we’re looking forward to Thursday."

'It was a very important away goal' Video

'It was a very important away goal'

Juan Mata and Victor Lindelof assess the state of play after our first leg against Brugge...

ROTATING THE TEAM

"We need to keep using the squad, we need to use the players and give them a chance to play their way into the team and into form because there’s so many games and tonight was worth making the changes because Sunday we have a big game with Watford."

HALFWAY IN THE TIE

"There's still 90 minutes to play. We're halfway, it's one each. They’ve got to come to Old Trafford and score, but we want to score as well. We need to think about winning the game.”

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