(Football news) Manchester United’s Champions League hopes for next season suffered a massive setback as the Red Devils were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw against Watford at Old Trafford. Rangnick’s team had the opportunity to move within one point of third place Chelsea and despite a good start, Manchester United’s finishing let them down and the spurned chance after chance.
Ralf Rangnick made four changes to the starting lineup from the team that featured against Atletico Madrid with Anthony Elanga, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Alex Telles and Nemanja Matic playing in the starting XI. Despite a promising start, Cristiano Ronaldo hit the post in the fifth minute followed by Bruno Fernandes being denied by former United goalkeeper Ben Foster. Ronaldo found the back of the net in his second attempt but the goal was disallowed due to the offside rule.
The chances continued to fall for Manchester United as Paul Pogba’s cross found Fernandes one-on-one with Foster once again but the Portuguese midfielder couldn’t hit the target. Fernandes had another opportunity to head the ball into the back of the net from a Ronaldo cross but he couldn’t hit the target once again, despite being unmarked and unchallenged for the ball inside the box. Manchester United appealed for a penalty before the first half when Anthony Elanga was brought down by Craig Cathcart but referee Kevin Friend waved play on.
The second half was more of the same story as Paul Pogba’s volley went wide off target and Watford centre-back Samir’s header didn’t hit the target. Manchester United had another penalty appeal denied when Ronaldo went down after a challenge by Hassane Kamara. Despite a good performance by Anthony Elanga, he also left his scoring boots at home and fired wide after some brilliant build-up play by Manchester United. The 19 year old went on to block Ronaldo’s effort on the goal line as well.
With frustration turning into desperation, Rangnick called up Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw but it made no difference. In fact, Rashford and Shaw seemed to disrupt the attacking momentum Manchester United had built up while Sancho’s efforts proved to be fruitless. Malang Sarr had an opportunity to secure a win for Watford but his shot went inches wide off the target as the two sides shared a point each from the fixture.
Speaking after the match, Ralf Rangnick said "It feels once again like two points dropped that we should have easily won. I think we did everything apart from scoring and had enough chances to win that game. But we didn't. And that's why we drew and dropped two important points in a very important game.
"I think we had enough chances. In the first half we had four clear, clear opportunities that normally are enough to score at least one or two goals. And in the second half it was similar. So yes, in the end, it's as I said about efficiency, about being clinical in front of goal. And this is not for the first time, unfortunately.
"It's difficult to say [why we miss chances]. Our job as coaches and the head coaches is to help the team create enough chances. If we only had two or three opportunities in the game, we could ask ourselves, "Well, what can we do to create even more chances?" But I think the number of clear chances we had today have to be enough to win a game like this."
Also read: Liverpool win Carabao Cup as Kepa misses penalty for Chelsea
