Manchester United produced yet another comeback for the ages on Thursday as they came back from two goals down to win 5-4 in their Europa League quarter-final second leg tie against Olympique Lyonnais at Old Trafford.
It should not have been so difficult considering the hosts had taken a two-goal lead into the half-time break. But rarely has this club done things the easy way.
They conceded two goals in the space of six minutes as the French side restored parity before the visitors took an unlikely two goal lead in the first period of extra time despite going down to 10 men.
And then the home side pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat, scoring thrice in the space of seven minutes to send the Old Trafford faithful into raptures.
Incredible extra-time scenes The game was a reminder of why the 20-time English league champions are known as the comeback kings and in the process, they broke two crazy records (via TNT Sports).
Thursday’s match was the first time in the history of a major European competition that a club scored two goals in the 120th minute.
The equaliser came courtesy Kobbie Mainoo, who kept calm under pressure and despite being surrounded by multiple Lyon defenders, he calmly slotted the ball past the despairing goalie.
The Carrington graduate is building up an incredible catalogue of high-stakes goals and hopefully, the club can convince him to sign the new contract.
Records tumble The winner came courtesy Harry Maguire, who was once again sent forward to play as a makeshift striker, with the England international heading in from Casemiro’s pin-point ball into the box.
The other record was that five goals were scored in extra time of a major men’s European game for the first time. Five have been scored in the women’s game but this was the first instance of this happening in the men’s game.
The incredible win means the Red Devils have qualified for the last-four stage with the semi-final set to be against Athletic Bilbao, the same venue as the final.
Ruben Amorim is expected to fully focus on winning the competition now and hopefully, the players can take this momentum forward in the weeks to come.
Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
