HManchester United were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk at the Donbass Arena as a second-half Taison goal cancelled out Danny Welbeck's opener.
The two Champions League Group A rivals went into the game level on points after opening wins, and after 90 keenly contested minutes in Ukraine there was still nothing to separate the pair.
With Wayne Rooney ruled out at the last minute through injury the onus was on Danny Welbeck and the returning Robin van Persie to score the goals that would secure manager David Moyes a much-needed win after a difficult week and a galling defeat against West Brom.
They couldn't have got off to a better start when Welbeck edged the Red Devils ahead after just 14 minutes as he poked home Marouane Fellaini's low ball.
The home side looked strong however and looked unlikely to relinquish their record of having never lost to English opposition on home soil, and after the break started to boss proceedings.
With Manchester United dropping deeper and Shakhtar's bevy of Brazilian's starting to weave their magic, the equaliser had an air of inevitability about it.
The otherwise impressive Nemanja Vidic failed to deal with a ball into the box and that allowed Taison to pounce and fire into the roof of the net with 14 minutes remaining.
Manchester United had chances of their own to grab a second, particularly through Van Persie while Shakhtar could have stolen the points late on - but overall Moyes admitted he was happy to come away with the draw.
"The team stood up well tonight," he said afterwards. "We got a good goal early doors. It looked like we would have stopped them from scoring until the goal.
"We said at half time we had to keep the ball better. I'm disappointed we didn't pass it better. If we got the second goal from Robin [Van Persie] we would have seen it out."
1 COMMENTS BELOW
NEXT ARTICLE >
hjjjjjhhhhjjj
No comments:
Post a Comment