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Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana committed two high-profile and costly errors as his side slipped to a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie against Lyon.
Onana misjudged a Thiago Almada free-kick that gave Lyon the lead before Leny Yoro restored parity at the stroke of half-time with his first goal for United.
Substitute Joshua Zirkzee popped up with what looked to be the winner in the 88th minute after an incredible ball from Bruno Fernandes.
United were headed for a victory but Onana palmed a shot straight out to Rayan Cherki, who equalised in stoppage time.
Onana’s errors come off the back of his feud with former Red Nemanja Matic, which played out on Wednesday. The Cameroonian shot-stopper sparked the conflict after saying United were “way better” than Lyon. Matic responded by branding Onana ” one of the worst goalkeepers in United’s history.”
Onana clapped back, ridiculing Matic’s failure to win a trophy during his five-year stint at Old Trafford.
After the final whistle, Amorim spoke to reporters and had his say on Onana’s disastrous performance and the result.
The Portuguese coach said about Onana’s howlers, “It can happen. If you play football, if you play a lot of matches, you can make mistakes. If you look at the season, I made more mistakes than them [the players] during these last few games and months.”
“The only thing is we have one more game to change everything, so that should be our focus.”
On whether his pre-match spat with Matic could have played a hand in Onana’s error-laden display, Amorim said, “I don’t know, that can happen. The best thing is to look at the goals and all the actions that Andre had in the game…to talk with [Jorge] Vital…this is the best way to help any player – to focus on the game, what happened and what we need to improve and then put the player again.”
Asked how Onana is feeling, Amorim told reporters, “No, I didn’t see him to be honest with you. I used that time to calm down so I could come here and say the right things. But it’s normal. I felt it was really quiet in the dressing room and that is a good thing. We drew away in Europe and that is always hard.”
“But the team is suffering and we need to change that and we have the opportunity to change it, so let’s focus on that.”
Pressed further on whether Onana’s mistakes are disappointing, Amorim remarked, “That is clear but we need results. We are talking about the performance and we are improving, we are being consistent – I think that is clear for everybody.”
“Then we need to win and we had the game under control but the good thing is the last play before their goal…when we wanted to make the third goal and sometimes you can keep the ball and I really liked that energy from the team to score another goal.”
“But again, that can happen and we need to focus on changing that next Thursday.”
Amorim praised Yoro for his superb performance at Parc Olympique Lyonnais.
The United head coach said about Yoro, “He’s really good, he’s really confident. I think he’s improving the physicality after struggling a bit. He didn’t have pre-season, so we had to maintain Leny and we had some problems and we started again, so we are seeing all the work that the staff are doing with Leny.”
“He feels more at home in Carrington and in our work, so you can see that he is a top top top player.”
On what motivated his decision to start Zirkzee ahead of Rasmus Hojlund, who struggled once more, Amorim pointed out, “Sometimes you…sometimes the most important player is the one that comes inside during the game and he did his job quite well.”
“But again, Rasmus, especially during the first half, made a lot of runs and pushed the team forward in one moment when we were struggling to press the opponent. He did his job and then Josh [Zirkzee] did a great goal and also did a great job when he was inside the pitch.”
Amorim refused to say that United have the upper hand ahead of the return leg at Old Trafford. He emphasised that it remains a 50/50 affair and warned that Lyon have the tools to hurt them even in front of the home crowd.
On what he will tell Onana once he speaks to him, Amorim answered, “Nothing. We have training. Go with Vital and we’ll deal with that. That can happen with any player. We all try to help. There’s nothing I can say to Andre in this moment that will help him.”
Amorim hinted that he might drop Onana, saying that going forward, he will choose the best team to win matches.
“The most important thing is to be natural and when the time comes, I will choose the best XI to play but I’m really confident in Andre.”
United are back in action on Sunday when they go away to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United.
Featured image Michael Steele via Getty Images
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