Galatasaray 3-3 Manchester United: Onanas errors, stressful display, schoolboy football

April 17, 2024

Manchester United’s hopes of advancing to the last 16 of the Champions League took a serious blow after a remarkable 3-3 away draw against Galatasaray.

Alejandro Garnacho put United ahead in the Turkish city of Istanbul, and Bruno Fernandes doubled the lead. But Hakim Ziyech then beat Andre Onana with a free kick before the break. Scott McTominay looked to have pulled United away from danger with a strike 10 minutes after half-time, but Ziyech scored again after an Onana mistake. Kerem Akturkoglu levelled the game with 19 minutes of the 90 remaining.

The result left United bottom of Group A, a point behind Copenhagen and Galatasaray.

Here The Athletic’s Carl Anka analyses the match.

Pos	Team	GP	GD	PTS
1	Bayern Munich (Q)	6	6	16
2	Copenhagen (Q)	6	0	8
3	Galatasaray	6	-3	5
4	Manchester United	6	-3	4

What was Andre Onana doing?

After United’s 4-3 defeat to Bayern Munich in the first matchweek, Andre Onana decided to give an interview to apologise.

“We started very well and after my mistake we lost control of the game,” Onana said then. “It’s a difficult situation for me, I let the team down. It’s because of me we didn’t win this game.”

It’s been a rollercoaster Champions League campaign for the Cameroon international signed from Inter Milan in the summer, who again made errors tonight to turn what looked like being a comfortable win into a damaging draw. Onana was wrong-footed by the flight of Ziyech’s free kick for the first Galatasaray goal. The ball travelled in the gap vacated by the two Galatasaray players standing next to Fernandes, just as the United ’keeper had taken a step in the opposite direction.

GO DEEPER

Onana is a mix of the exceptional and the excruciating - much like Man Utd

Ziyech’s second free-kick goal, which like the first, was a set piece given away by Fernandes, went in due to a genuine howler. Onana somehow leapt over the ball at a crucial moment and let it trickle past him. Galatasaray’s third from Akturkoglu was too strong and too fast for any blame to be apportioned to Onana, but it is concerning that a goalkeeper who was so impressive for Inter as they made the final of this competition last season seems to be so error-prone for United.

Onana has a rising tendency to parry shots back into dangerous areas when making saves – particularly towards his left (the right side of the goal).

Four massive errors across United’s five games have dramatically changed the complexion of Group A and left them with only a slim chance of qualifying for the Champions League’s knockout phase.

Ziyech scored twice (Ahmad Mora/Getty Images)

Will Manchester United ever not be stressful to watch?

One day, I would like to write about Manchester United controlling a game from minute one to minute 90.

Christmas is right around the corner; so the next time I talk to Santa Claus, I might ask them to gift Erik ten Hag’s men with calmness and composure on the ball. If the big man is feeling generous, we might even ask for a little midfield stability as well.

Until that meeting, until that glorious day… we will continue to list a variety of statistics before shrugging at the oddity of it all.

United have scored 12 goals in this Champions League group stage — only Atletico Madrid and Manchester City have more. It is bizarre/frustrating/farcical (take your pick) that a team who score so freely are still a way off qualifying for the knockout rounds.

Before kick-off tonight, Ten Hag told his players to treat the loud whistles from the Galatasaray crowd as a compliment, a sign they were doing their jobs properly. Things were looking good after Garnacho and Fernandes put United 2-0 up. And then — as has happened during every game in United’s Champions League campaign — the tide began to turn.

A midfield of McTominay, Sofyan Amrabat and Fernandes found themselves vulnerable to the pacy counter-attacks of Galatasaray, and Ziyech’s free kick in the 29th minute wrong-footed Onana and halved United’s lead. McTominay scored to make it 3-1 after half-time, but another Ziyech free kick and then Akturkoglu’s goal levelled it up.

Maybe I’ll just ask Santa for a win against Bayern Munich in next month’s group finale instead.

(Ahmad Mora/Getty Images)

Was it 10 minutes of thrilling — or schoolboy — football?

When the scores reached 3-3, midfield shape got abandoned and chaos reigned for the final 20 or so minutes.

On UK broadcaster TNT Sports, commentator Darren Fletcher described as it being “like schoolboy football”, as players on both sides went running after the ball trying to find a late winner. TNT pundit Rio Ferdinand said it was “like a basketball game”, such was the up-and-down nature of things.

A 30-second period saw Wilfried Zaha go close with an attempt for the home team, only for United to march down the other end and a shot from Fernandes to hit the outside of a post. A low cross from Diogo Dalot in the 89th minute set the cat among the pigeons and heart in mouths, but Facundo Pellistri could not quite get a connection.

More than 30 attempts were made on goal between two sides desperate to make the Champions League knockout stages. FC Copenhagen and Bayern Munich, playing in Germany later in the day, must have watched this early kick-off as they waited for their own game to start and chuckled at the madness.

For the neutral it was thrilling. For the United or Galatasaray fan, it would have been agony.

What did Ten Hag say?

The United manager refused to blame Onana for the two points dropped, and said: “I think as a team we played very well. We win and lose together. You see the progress in this team. I take many positives from this game. We made some mistakes but we played the way I want my team to play. It was dynamic, brave, and we scored great goals.

“We should have won with big chances from McTominay and Pellistri. I am disappointed because we should have won the game.”

What next for Manchester United?

Saturday, December 2: Newcastle United (A), Premier League, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET

In domestic football, Ten Hag’s side have won five of their last six Premier League games. Newcastle could be a sterner test than many of the sides seen off in that run, however, with Manchester United only winning one of the last five meetings between the two clubs.

What was Andre Onana doing?

Will Manchester United ever not be stressful to watch?

Was it 10 minutes of thrilling — or schoolboy — football?

What did Ten Hag say?

What next for Manchester United?

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