Jose Mourinho branded his mis-firing Manchester United stars as "sloppy" after conceding a late equaliser in their 1-1 Europa League quarter-final first leg draw at Anderlecht yesterday
Leander Dendoncker
Anderlecht’s Leander Dendoncker (right) scores the equaliser against Manchester United during their Europa League quarter-final first leg match in Brussels yesterday. Pic/AP, PTI
Brussels: Jose Mourinho branded his mis-firing Manchester United stars as "sloppy" after conceding a late equaliser in their 1-1 Europa League quarter-final first leg draw at Anderlecht yesterday.
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United had several chances to kill off the tie after Henrikh Mkhitaryan's first half opener from a tight angle but their failure to convert chances — a failing all season long — came back to haunt them as Leander Dendoncker blasted home a header four minutes from time.
"The result is positive. But I think the result should be much better, we can only blame ourselves. We have an easy game to play in the second half and we didn't — we lost the ball easily. We made sloppy decisions, we had sloppy touches on the ball and then we gave them opportunities to have counter-attacks," said Mourinho, with the second leg at Old Trafford to come next week.
Mourinho praised the defence which had stood firm until Dendoncker's late run wasn't tracked, allowing the strapping midfielder to rise above Matteo Darmian and Marcus Rojo to power home a header.
"It was a strong performance for them, from the defence. They did defensively what we asked them to do. There's nothing I can do, they have to go until the end," said Mourinho.
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