In Manchester United’s Europa League victory over Viktoria Plzen, a costly mistake from Andre Onana became a key talking point.
The blunder occurred shortly after halftime when Onana made a risky short pass to Matthijs de Ligt, only for the ball to be intercepted by Pavel Sulc.
Sulc quickly passed the ball to Matej Vydra, who easily scored into an almost empty net.
Despite being a tough opponent in Europe, Viktoria Plzen fell behind as United staged a comeback, with Rasmus Hojlund scoring twice in the second half to seal a 2-1 victory.
However, the embarrassing goal conceded by United continued to draw attention. Former Chelsea and England midfielder Karen Carney believes Matthijs de Ligt was more to blame than Onana.
Carney explained, “The slow ball from Lisandro Martinez to Onana set the stage for the mistake. Onana asked De Ligt to come short, which would’ve allowed him to pass the ball out and avoid the press. But De Ligt was too slow to react, caught on his back foot, and that led to the error.”
Meanwhile, former United player Owen Hargreaves suggested both Onana and De Ligt were at fault but leaned slightly more toward blaming the goalkeeper.
He said, “De Ligt didn’t want the ball, and Onana played a poor pass. It’s a tough situation for a center-back, but Onana’s pass was poor and in the wrong place. When the manager asks you to receive the ball, you try, but it was a mistake from Onana.”
