Harry Maguire was mystified as to how he’d missed a golden opportunity to give Manchester United a first-half lead against AC Milan at Old Trafford.
Harry Maguire said “I don’t know how it didn’t go in, I’ve got to score, I’ve got to find more contact, I was on the stretch, tried to react quickly but I’ve got to find a way to put it into the back of the net, there are no excuses there. I had a big one, Dan had a big one in the second half they had quite a bit of the play but not the chances to go with it. At 1-0 we were in a great position and a set play has done us again.”
Amad was a bright spot for United on a difficult night, scoring just five minutes after coming for the injured Anthony Martial at half-time. Harry Maguire said “Probably the only positive of the night, he looked bright, credit to him, the goal gave him the confidence. He’s learning every day, working hard in training and he’s going to be a big player for us,” said Maguire. The United skipper admitted to frustration at the way his side had performed at Old Trafford.
Harry Maguire said “It was a frustrating evening throughout the 90 minutes, we didn’t play to our best, we got ourselves into a great position, [but] we’ve got to see it, we’ve got to do better, defend the set play. We sat a little bit deep and we weren’t good enough on the ball, but it looked like it would be 1-0 and it would be a good result for ourselves. But it’s only halfway in the tie.”
The two European giants shared the spoils in the first leg of their last-16 tie, with Amad scoring early in the second half for United before Simon Kjaer’s injury-time equaliser for Milan. It was the least the visitors deserved, having controlled large parts of the game and created plenty of promising openings, but United were guilty of spurning a couple of glorious chances. Maguire hit the post from barely two yards out in the first half, before Daniel James fired wide with the goal gaping in the second half.
