Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has taken responsibility for his team’s elimination from the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Ole’s men only needed a draw against RB Leipzig but lost 3-2, cursing them down to the Europa League.
Reacting after the game, Solskjaer lamented that his team was unlucky towards the end of the game after almost pulling a 3-3 comeback from three goals down.
He told BT Sport: “There was great spirit and comeback but we started too late. You can’t give a team a 3-0 lead.
“I thought we were unlucky towards the end. The character and the effort was there.
“We weren’t good enough. In a difficult group we started well but the big turning point was the defeat to Istanbul. That’s where we lost points that we should have had.
“You can’t feel sorry for yourself. We have to focus on Saturday.”
“We didn’t perform as a team well enough and that’s always the manager’s responsibility, to get everyone ready,” the United boss said.
“We knew they were going to come at us, we knew they were going to put crosses in the box and unfortunately we conceded two goals and we never got going.
“In games earlier [this season] when we’ve conceded the first goal, we’ve played pretty well.
“Today we just didn’t turn up until they scored the second goal. Suddenly then we started playing again.
“We had one chance maybe at 1-0 – Mason (Greenwood) had a good chance there – but after 2-0 we started playing.
“Second half was one-way traffic more or less and the one chance they had, they managed to score.
“So, 3-0 is going to be difficult but they all gave everything, very good character, effort. I can’t fault anyone and we were close to getting the third.
“That would have been some achievement against a good team like Leipzig.
“It just didn’t work for us. It is a difficult season, there are difficult circumstances this year and of course we were up for it and the character and effort I can’t fault.”
United face Manchester City in the first Premier League Manchester derby clash of the season on Saturday at Old Trafford Stadium.
