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Joshua Zirkzee looked to have sealed a classic smash-and-grab victory when rising to head home Bruno Fernandes’s cross with 87 minutes on the clock. But deep in added time Rayan Cherki turned home after what appeared a second André Onana howler – the keeper pushing the ball straight out.
This followed a first error that featured Thiago Almada’s dead ball skip straight past Onana and surely cause Nemajan Matic – an unused substitute – glee.
This followed the Serb branding Onana one of United’s poorest keepers after the 29-year-old’s claim that United are better than Lyon. The tit-for-tat closed with Onana’s dig that he has won trophies at United – unlike in Matic’s five years at the club – but he still ended the night thanking Leny Yoro for the equaliser that eased his discomfort.
The breathless end means the tie is poised nicely for next week’s second leg.
The Onana-Matic spat fuelled a crowd who let off flares and firecrackers in the Décines-Charpieu sun, then entered a bouncing stadium to barrack the keeper whenever they could.
The same number were close to jeering their captain when Corentin Tolisso jabbed a boot at Bruno Fernandes’s free-kick: he went close to a hapless finish past his keeper, Lucas Perri, but the ball went to safety.
Lyon targeted Diogo Dalot as a weakness. Twice diagonals had him flatfooted: the second allowed Georges Mikautadze to aim a header towards Tolisso, but Dalot, recovering, cleared. Mikautadze’s next move was burning away from Dalot and dinking in a cross – again, the forward was thwarted and again, United’s right-wingback was vulnerable.
United were often arranged with six or seven in the backline, a corollary of the pressure Lyon applied. A rare foray down their left featured Patrick Dorgu pulling the ball back for Rasmus Højlund, but an embarrassing scuff ensued and Lyon were handed a goal kick.
Fernandes was far more accomplished when a Dalot-Alejandro Garnacho combo along the right had the latter finding his captain in the area: Fernandes pulled the trigger, Perri palmed over.
How Onana wished he was as safe as this because now came a moment to forget. From the left, Almada floated in a free-kick in the corridor of uncertainty that tests whether a goalkeeper should come to claim or not. Onana plumped against doing so, the ball bounced before him, skidded, and the Cameroonian, despairing, flung a glove – but this only tipped the ball into the net, as if giving a catching practice off the thick edge of a bat.
Cue utter glee and derision from the home faithful and a rattled United, as personified by Dalot clattering Nicolás Tagliafico a time zone or two late and being booked by Glenn Nyberg. The visitors needed to calm themselves and the contest, but in a next attack Garnacho’s shot was snatched and Lyon cleared. The next question was whether Onana would add to his embarrassment.
Almada thought so because at another dead ball, 25 yards out and straighter this time, he took direct aim, but the effort sailed high.
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Ruben Amorim needed to get his men in for a word because United were in panic-mode. Noussair Mazraoui stumbled and conceded a corner; Harry Maguire and Yoro pressed deep and Lyon broke fast, the backline just about recovering.
Yet when they did wander off the score was level: a Fernandes free-kick was punched by Perri straight to Manuel Ugarte, whose volley was flicked home – admirably – by Yoro.
United’s second-half challenge was to up their quality – markedly. A Maguire 50-yard pass that dropped precisely for the on-running Fernandes and had him zigzagging towards goal was promising. But, for an umpteenth time, those around Fernandes failed him and the threat fizzled out.
Openings like these had to be taken as they were scant and because each time Lyon came at United they might crumble. Example: once more Mikautadze zipped down the left and turned the ball in for Alexandre Lacazette. Just on as a replacement for Paul Akouokou, he skewered his volley so United escaped.
The crowd remained lively despite witnessing a fare that was the attritional stuff of the journeyman, not the elite footballer. Yoro, hoping to follow up his first United strike, launched a mazy run that took him infield from the left but ended with an attempt firmly in the file marked “speculative”.
On 62 minutes, Amorim ended another lost night for Højlund by replacing him with Joshua Zirkzee. Perhaps Tolisso had caught each forward’s bluntness before goal because after slick footwork opened United up he popped a shot tamely into Onana’s hands.
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