Ole slams poor discipline

BERN (Switzerland) • Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes did not hide his contempt after the team's shock 2-1 Champions League opening defeat by Young Boys on Tuesday.

"It's Basaksehir all over again," the pundit said on BT Sport, referring to last season's loss in Istanbul that ultimately proved costly as the Red Devils failed to progress from the group stage.

However, United were in a tougher group - including Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig - back then and they still have five more fixtures to put things right.

The visitors had taken an early lead through Cristiano Ronaldo - his third strike in two games since his sensation return - and appeared on course to get their Champions League campaign off to a winning start, only for Young Boys to turn things around in dramatic style in the second half.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka's sending off 10 minutes before half-time for a dangerous tackle on Christopher Martins proved costly, as the Swiss side cranked up the pressure and equalised via Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu.

Still, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men looked like they would return to Manchester with a hard-fought point, but Jesse Lingard's woefully under-hit back pass allowed substitute Theoson-Jordan Siebatcheu to score in the 95th minute, in front of a delirious Wankdorf Stadium crowd.

Solskjaer later admitted poor discipline had cost his side but insisted there was plenty of time left to bounce back.

"It's in football in general, not just the Champions League, discipline is a huge part of the game," the United manager said.

"That's football for you at the highest level. Lack of concentration, make a mistake and you get punished. You get done. We did that last year in Europe.

"We conceded two sloppy counter-attacks against Basaksehir and we lost that game.

"Of course we've lost the opportunity to get three points but we've got two home games next and got to focus on them two. We know we've given ourselves a more difficult task than what we did last year but everyone thought we were through after two games last year."

64% Manchester United have lost seven of their 11 Champions League matches under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

United will face Villarreal, whom they lost to in the Europa League final in May, and Atalanta at Old Trafford in succession.

Both sides drew 2-2 in Spain - the hosts netted through Manu Trigueros and Arnaut Danjuma but had Francis Coquelin sent off, while the visitors scored via Remo Freuler and Robin Gosens.

With less than a year on his contract, the future of Lingard, who came on in place of Ronaldo in the 72nd minute, is uncertain but after a standout loan spell at West Ham in the second half of last season and scoring against Newcastle at the weekend, it appeared that the midfielder still had a part to play this term.

But Lingard and Solskjaer were heavily slated by United fans online, with the decision to also take off Bruno Fernandes at the same time as Ronaldo questioned.

On the substitutions, the Norwegian defended his in-game decisions but admitted he could have handled their less-fancied opponents better after having only two shots on target - the last came in the 25th minute.

"The game had gone 70-odd minutes, they had been running a lot on Saturday and today," the Norwegian said.

"We could have spread out more, maybe sent one of the midfielders up higher in support of Cristiano because he was lonely up there."

Solskjaer also absolved Lingard of any blame, adding: "We're humans, every footballer makes mistakes, we'll learn from it, he'll learn from it. He'll pick himself up and be ready to go on Sunday (against West Ham in the English Premier League)."

This was Young Boys first victory over United in three attempts - they were defeated home and away in the 2018-19 group phase.

United will have to wait until December to gain revenge as the reverse fixture is their final group game, so the Swiss champions have plenty of time to bask in their win.

"We showed what we can do, we deserved it," Young Boys coach David Wagner said.

"It is an incredible night for this club. You can see what it means to the fans, after they have been kept away for so long."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS