Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Solskjaer: We always believe

Wednesday 06 March 2019 23:20

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted "we fancy ourselves" in the UEFA Champions League after Manchester United knocked out Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.

The Norwegian spoke to BT Sport after an epic match and described Marcus Rashford as "fearless", after the 21-year-old lashed home a decisive penalty under incredible pressure in injury time.

Read on to hear what our caretaker manager had to say...
 
WE WANTED AN OPEN GAME
 
“We always believe, that’s the thing. We set out the plan. It wasn’t about having the ball and outplaying them. If give this team too much space and time, with Mbappe, we saw a few times in the first half when we missed our defensive shape and they were through us straight away.

"The plan was to get the first goal and be in the game with five or 10 minutes to go and we were. The belief in the boys was just what we hoped for. Of course, there was a great start. We set out a plan to get the first goal. We didn’t expect it after two minutes, but that made it more open for us. We wanted many goals in the game.”
 
NERVELESS RASHFORD
 
“There’s always doubts. I was in the Champions League with Molde and we got a penalty in the last minute against Basel and my player missed that penalty and we went out. So this time, of course, normally Paul [Pogba] takes the penalties. Rashford is 21 and there was pressure on the boy but there were no nerves whatsoever. Fearless. Him and Rom [Lukaku] were fantastic tonight.”
Marcus Rashford celebrates with debutant Mason Greenwood after the winning goal.
AJAX INSPIRED US
 
“It’s the Champions League. That’s what it does. We saw last night, Real Madrid v Ajax. That was our team talk. It was probably their team talk as well. Last year, it was Real Madrid v Juventus, that was close, the year before Paris against Barcelona. We always know that it’s possible and with this club, this is what we do. That’s just Man United.”
 
CHONG AND GREENWOOD GAVE US IMPETUS
 
“There’s always some mental doubt, because they’ve [PSG] had those experiences. We’ve had the other way, we’ve won the game in the last few minutes and of course our boys were young, fresh and the two young’uns that came on as well gave us a little bit more energy when we needed that goal.”
VAR DRAMA
 
“No, I haven’t [seen the penalty on television]. I tried to calm everyone down and sit them down, because the referee of course he had a big, big call to make. My staff says he made himself big. It was a clear penalty apparently.”
 
IT WAS TOO LOUD TO CHAT TO SIR ALEX!
 
“You don’t make chat now. It’s too noisy. Great atmosphere, of course, and it’s great to see the boss in there.”
Eric Cantona and Sir Alex Ferguson celebrate the win with Ole.
CAN UNITED WIN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE?

"Of course, we fancy ourselves that we can go all the way but we just have to wait for the draw and take the game as it comes now. We’ve had loads of injuries and suspensions but maybe that was a good thing today. It was a fresh team with loads of energy and we knew we had to defend, be humble enough to work hard and we did that."

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