Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is keen to take the positives from the performance against Sevilla rather than dwell on the disappointing result.
The Europa League quarter-final first leg started ideally for United as Marcel Sabitzer opened the scoring inside a quarter of an hour and matters got even better when the Bayern Munich loanee added a second seven minutes later. A 2-0 lead rightly reflected the control exerted over their Spanish opponents at Old Trafford, which continued deep in the second half.
After that, as Ten Hag admits, there was a loss of focus, and mistakes followed in allowing the visitors back into the game through own goals from first Tyrell Malacia and then Harry Maguire in the second minute of stoppage time. The United manager stresses that there remains a big lesson to learn from the final minutes of that match but does not downplay what came before it.
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“Of course,” Ten Hag replied when asked by club media whether there were positives to take forward from the first-half performance. ”I think it's good you bring it up.
”There were a lot of positives in this game; I think until the 81st minute, we controlled the game. In the 81st minute, we created a big chance, and it should have been three nil, but also, before that, we had our chances to make it three.
”We didn't, and then we lost focus, we made mistakes, and the opponent benefited from it, although we made the goals by ourselves, and that’s a big lesson.”
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