A BIZARRE PENALTY decision saw Manchester United beaten in the Europa League by Real Sociedad on a sombre night at Old Trafford.
Buckingham Palace announced Queen Elizabeth II had passed away after the Royal family gathered at Balmoral this afternoon.
Following the Queen’s death, Old Trafford flew their flags at half-mast as the teams wore black armbands and all advertising hoardings around the ground had been blacked out.
And the minute’s silence was perfectly respected before both teams got their respective Europa campaigns underway.
It was the 56th minute when Italian referee Marco Di Bello pointed to the spot after the ball hit Lisandro Martinez as he slid in to block David Silva’s effort.
But replays showed the point-blank shot had hit Martinez on the knee and deflected up onto his elbow.
READ MORE ON THE QUEEN’S DEATH
It looked for sure that VAR would overturn the decision but it stood and Brais Mendez made no mistake in beating David de Gea with a powerful kick into the bottom right-hand corner with a goal that was very much against the run of play.
But penalty aside, United could not have too many complaints in the end after an uninspiring showing.
With six changes made by Erik Ten Hag from the victory over Arsenal it was a chance for players to stake claims for Premier League action.
It is fair to say that the boss will be reverting back to ‘team A’ next time out with Cristiano Ronaldo certainly doing little to suggest he should be getting his place back.
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This was the tournament Cristiano Ronaldo wanted out of Old Trafford to avoid.
The five-time Champions League winner, even at 37, had his eyes set on the biggest prize once more when he tried to engineer a move away from United this summer.
But no one with designs on it wanted him and United were not in it.
So here he was playing in the Europa League for the first time since he turned out for Sporting Lisbon against Partizan Belgrade in the competition 20 years ago.
He did not look up for the fight.
Indeed when he did have the ball in the back of the net it was the lackadaisical way in which he had failed to get back onside that turned out costing him.
It was the 35th minute and Diogo Dalot picked the ball up midway inside the opposition half.
But Ronaldo had just been walking back from the previous attack and so was a yard offside when he met Dalot’s cross and headed goalwards.
Alejandro Ramiro got a hand to it but could only palm the ball up onto the underside of the bar and in.
Ronaldo did not even have time to celebrate before the flag went up for a clear offside and his body language suggested he knew it was the right decision.
Earlier he failed to reach a Christian Eriksen cross with his head but did not look to be stretching every sinew to reach it either.
When Eriksen slid another pass through the middle, Ronaldo’s first touch was awful, the ball looping in the air and possession gone.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
