12 December 2023 , 23:44
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Manchester United were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich on Tuesday night, but the damage was done by earlier "criminal" performances, according to Rio Ferdinand.
United slumped out of Europe, with a 1-0 defeat against Bayern at Old Trafford seeing them finish bottom of Group A, below Copenhagen and Galatasaray. It was yet another uninspiring performance from Erik ten Hag’s side, who have now lost 12 of their 24 games in all competitions this season.
But their chances of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League were already hanging by a thread on Tuesday, needing to inflict Bayern’s first group stage loss in 40 matches and for Copenhagen to draw with Galatasaray. In the end neither of those things happened and former United defender Ferdinand highlighted the fact that things had already gone wrong on the road.
United lost 4-3 in Munich in their opening game, threw away a 2-0 lead to lose 4-3 at Copenhagen in November and then drew 3-3 with Galatasaray, having once again led 2-0 early on in Istanbul. Ultimately, it was those games that did the damage for Ferdinand.
“When the groups came out, you would’ve thought that Manchester United could’ve gone through, but to score three goals in each of their away games and to come away with the points they did is criminal really,” he said on TNT Sports. “To score that many goals in the group stage – 12 in the group stage but they conceded 15.
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“That’s kamikaze football, that’s basketball football, we attack, you attack. And they got their just rewards because if you can’t close matches out, then you don’t deserve to go through to the knockout stages.”
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Ten Hag refused to criticise his players for their efforts against Bayern, despite them mustering just one shot on target as Kingsley Coman’s goal won it. Like Ferdinand, the United boss pointed to previous failings in the campaign.
“We didn’t lose it today, that’s clear,” he said. “We had good performances but then also we made mistakes. Some individual errors from some players and it wasn’t good enough. But today, the performance was very good and I thought we didn't deserve to lose.”
Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel gave a similar answer when asked if he was surprised that United had finished bottom of the group. “Yeah this is a huge club and not what you expect. In the group you expect also Manchester United challenging for the win of the group and a place in the round of 16, but in my experience I can tell you we had a difficult group,” he said.
“The matches were tight, the results were narrow so you could see everything was possible until today for Manchester United. In some of the matches games changed in a blink of an eye. They were comfortable in the lead in Istanbul and gave it away, they were comfortable in the lead in Copenhagen. It is a big club, they are a dangerous team.”