TAHITH CHONG stood up and apologised to his teammates after the miss that cost Manchester United victory in Kazakhstan.
Chong, 19, ballooned over an empty net from three yards out in the 55th minute at a time when United were 1-0 up and dominating Astana.
Tahith Chong missed a sitter at the back post as Manchester United lost 2-1 against AstanaCredit: BT Sport
Manchester United’s record-breaking kids lost 2-1 at AstanaCredit: Reuters
Within seven minutes they had conceded twice and went on to lose this Europa League tie 2-1.
United boss Ole Solskjaer said: “He stood up and said in the dressing room it would have been a different game if he had scored.
“But no striker should ever worry about missing chances. I think I did once as well.”
Another player who needed consoling was debutant Di’Shon Bernard turning the ball past his own goalkeeper for what proved to be the winner.
Solskjaer said: “He is disappointed of course and he will remember that from his debut.
“But we want him to remember all the other touches he had.
“He defended well put in some last ditch clearances, he was excellent and sometimes strikers miss chances and sometimes defenders score an own goals.
“That’s partly down to bad luck and I thought he did really well, that’s why I wanted him to remember this game.”
With United already through to the next stage of the Europa League and Astana out this was a dead rubber.
It allowed Solskjaer to play a second team which, with the exception of goalkeeper Lee Grant, had an average age of 20.
Solskjaer was delighted with what he saw even in defeat.
He said: “Definitely, we’re disappointed with the end result but I thought we started the game fantastically, the boys took control of the game, and the response after they scored two was also good.
“I was disappointed with that 10 min spell, you could feel pressure was coming but there were some fantastic performances.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
