Manchester United need Antony to drop petulance when dividing line is so thin

It was a night when it was wise to take nothing at face value, when deeper scratches beneath were a prerequisite. The overarching example at Old Trafford on Thursday concerned Manchester United’s superiority over a heavily rotated Sevilla team for 84 minutes of the Europa League quarter-final first leg. It came to feel like a mirage when they imploded late on, conceding twice to draw 2-2.

The devil lay in the finer details. When United’s star defender, Lisandro Martínez, lay stricken in the 86th minute at 2-1, it was lovely to see the Sevilla full-backs Gonzalo Montiel and Marcos Acuña help him up and carry him to the side of the pitch – before he was taken away on a stretcher.

Or was it? Martínez’s World Cup-winning Argentina teammates could sense that United were vulnerable after Tyrell Malacia’s own goal and it is a fair bet that they also knew their opponents had used their five substitutes. They did not want Martínez to receive lengthy treatment on the field, eating up vital minutes, breaking their sudden momentum. They wanted him out of the way.

Then there was Érik Lamela’s 38th-minute tackle on Casemiro, who was in the wars on his return from suspension, later catching a dangerously high boot in the face from Nemanja Gudelj. Lamela put his studs into Casemiro, who had gone to ground to challenge and it was difficult to tell whether another of Sevilla’s Argentinians was trying to pull out once he realised that the Brazilian was in charge of the duel.

Then again, this was Argentina v Brazil. And it was Lamela, who will not mind it being written that he loves to embrace the dark arts; he will do anything to win. The VAR gave him the benefit of the doubt when choosing not to upgrade his yellow card to red.

The rivalry