Romelu Lukaku said that some of his Manchester United teammates were so taken aback by their crashing out of UEFA Champions League last night that they went hiding in the dressing room after the game. United were heavy favorites to go through to the quarterfinals, but fell behind 2-0 and lost 2-1, getting eliminated in a result that was bad for everybody involved.
United supporters were livid by the team’s uninspiring showing. Club legends and current pundits Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes gave scathing criticisms of the team. Manager Jose Mourinho was rather blase about it all, which probably incensed fans even more, and he still maintains that it wasn’t a bad game his side played. He’ll struggle to find people to agree with that assessment.
Lukaku gave a detailed and brutally honest breakdown to BT Sport.
“Something was wrong with some players, some players were hiding,” the Belgian said.
“I think we started the game well, but then we let them get a bit of control in the game. We had a few half-chances but we didn’t score. Then they scored the first goal and from that moment on we tried to chase the game. Then they scored the second one which was a big blow. At the end we kept pushing, but it was not enough.”
“We should have done much better today because with the quality that we have in the team, I think we should have gone through. But we didn’t deserve it because we weren’t good enough.”
“We should have scored earlier, I think maybe in the first half with the half-chances that we created. The last pass today was not good enough — we always get in the right position but the last pass to each other was not good enough and I think that’s what killed us today.”
Romelu Lukaku was later asked to elaborate on what he meant with the “hiding” remark.
“I mean in the dressing room because some people were disappointed with the result because we expected better from ourselves,” the 24-year-old responded.
“We know we have a lot of quality in the team but today we didn’t show it. It’s difficult for us but we have to bounce back. We have one trophy to go and chase and that’s the FA Cup.”
Lukaku and United will play next in that very competition, against Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday. United won that competition in 2016, over Crystal Palace, in Louis van Gaal’s final match.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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