Manchester United were left stunned by two late own goals as Sevilla rescued a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal on Thursday.
Marcel Sabitzer scored twice, seven minutes apart, in the first half after through balls from Bruno Fernandes and Anthony Martial to put United in control of the match and seemingly the tie ahead of next week’s second leg in Spain.
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But a bizarre own goal from Tyrell Malacia in the 84th minute put Sevilla back in the running after the United left-back turned a Jesus Navas cross into his own net off David de Gea.
Things then went from bad to worse for the home side, who were forced to go down to 10 men when Lisandro Martinez had to be carried off with an injury.
Sevilla capitalised further in the second minute of stoppage time as Youssef En-Nesyri’s header traveled straight onto the head of unwitting substitute Harry Maguire to take the ball on target and past the bewildered De Gea.
There was more worrying news for Erik ten Hag’s side, with Fernandes picking up a yellow card that means he will be suspended for the second leg and Martinez’s fellow centre-back Raphael Varane also forced off with a knock at half-time.
“I think we had the game in hand,” Ten Hag told BT Sport. “We should have scored three or four. . . and then some unlucky moments with injuries. And then we conceded two own goals and that’s bad luck. We have to deal with it. Of course, we have to learn that we have to kill the game.”
Sabitzer, who is on loan from Bayern Munich, netted his first European goal for United in the 14th minute, when he controlled a pinpoint pass from Fernandes and shot past keeper Bono.
The Austrian doubled his tally seven minutes later, latching on to a fine pass from Martial and finishing well.
Sabitzer, however, said it was tough to find words after his team’s late meltdown.
“A roller-coaster,” Sabitzer said. “We had to finish the game off, it’s a draw, was not what we wanted, have to go to Seville and get it down there.
“We had the chances, we were confidence in the game and I think we controlled the game, but unfortunately we gave easy goals away.”
Martinez appeared to suffer a serious injury and was carried off the pitch by two Sevilla players who are his Argentina team-mates.
United, bidding for their second trophy of the season after winning the League Cup, thought they had scored seconds after kickoff, but Jadon Sancho’s effort was disallowed for offside.
Sevilla, languishing in the bottom half of La Liga, were outplayed in the first half but they nearly got on the scoreboard seconds before the interval when De Gea stopped Tanguy Nianzou’s close-range header and Varane cleared it off the line.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
