In Tuesday’s Champions League match, Manchester United’s goalkeeper Andre Onana came to the rescue by stopping a last-minute penalty and humbly stated that he was merely fulfilling his role in a post-game interview.
Despite a somewhat disjointed performance that had seen Harry Maguire score the only goal for the hosts, Onana’s heroic save secured all three points for the Red Devils.
As the match neared its end, Manchester United was clinging to a one-goal lead when Copenhagen was awarded a penalty following a foul by Scott McTominay during a corner kick.
Jordan Larsson stepped up to take the penalty, having seen his teammate Alejandro Garnacho miss an earlier one. However, Onana brilliantly denied Larsson’s attempt, leading to jubilant celebrations at Old Trafford.
Onana had faced criticism and made mistakes in his previous European appearances since joining the club from Inter Milan in the summer. However, his save in this match rightfully earned him the title of the night’s hero.
In the immediate aftermath of stopping Larsson’s penalty, Onana shared his thoughts with TNT Sports, saying, “I just had to do my job, you know. I had to do it for us to win, to win against a very tough opponent, we had a great game. Great goal from the big man Harry and I’m very happy, we have to continue like that.”
“Of course [there’s resilience]. We are Manchester United, we’re a very big club with big players. So it’s just a matter of time, now we have to continue like this and we’ll get through this.”
Manchester United’s manager, Erik ten Hag, showered praise on Onana while expressing his frustration about the penalty being awarded.
He stated, “Yes, of course, it’s incredible.”
“Especially when you concede a penalty in the dying seconds, it should not happen but then a brilliant save from Andre.”
“Slowly, I think we’re finding our form in the season and those players, I think, Harry Maguire played a brilliant game and Andre Onana did as well. He made a brilliant save just after half-time as well.”
Ten Hag also questioned the referee’s decisions, saying, “We conceded such a soft penalty, I don’t know if we should’ve had one ourselves for a foul on (Marcus) Rashford. Why is that not a penalty? We asked them, they told us it was onside but the referee gave it offside? Then it was not a foul?”
“But we dealt with it and that was a step up. A few weeks ago, we’d let referee decisions get to us, tonight we stayed calm and I would say in the poor first half we stayed calm. In the second half, we outplayed them and the win was justified in the end.”
Looking ahead, Onana will be aiming to use this critical save as a catalyst for his Manchester United career, and fans were left impressed by his ability to downplay the moment’s significance just minutes after making the stunning penalty save.
André Onana
André Onana
This season he played in total 9 times for 810 minutes for Premier League.
He made 31 saves and conceded 11 goals. He received 2 yellow cards and no red cards.
His team is currently 8th in Premier League. In the last match Manchester United won 1-0 against FC Copenhagen. The next match in Premier League will be against Manchester City.
Manchester United performance and stats
Manchester United is currently 8th in the Premier League with 15 points.
In the last 9 games, it has won 5 times and lost 4 times. In its last match, Manchester United won 1-2 against Sheffield United.
It has a negative goal difference after scoring 11 goals and conceding 13.
Manchester United will play the next match in Premier League against Manchester City on Sunday 29th of October in Manchester.