9 incredible stats from Man Utd’s jaw-dropping 5-4 comeback win over Lyon
Manchester United beat Lyon to progress to the Europa League semi-finals, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of a rollercoaster nine-goal thriller of a match at Old Trafford.
United strolled into a two-goal lead in the first-half thanks to strikes from Manuel Ugarte and Diogo Dalot, but two strikes for Lyon after the break took the match to extra-time.
And that was only the beginning of the chaos.
Playing with 10 men, Lyon took the lead through Rayan Cherki’s pinpoint strike and looked set to knock United out of Europe after Alexandre Lacazette’s penalty.
But United refused to lie down and meekly accept their fate; Bruno Fernandes pulled a goal back from the spot to keep the home fans on side.
With time running out, on both the match and United’s season, Ruben Amorim threw everybody into attack in attempt to break the Ligue 1 side’s resistance.
It worked; Kobbie Mainoo jinked threw the defence to slam home the leveller before Harry Maguire’s back post header made the score 5-4 to United.
United will now face Athletic Bilbao in the semis and we’ve rounded up nine stats after one of the most famous European nights in the history of the club.
– With eight goals and four assists, Cherki has been directly involved in more goals than any other player in the Europa League this season.
– It’s the most goals and assists by a Frenchman in a Europa League season since Olivier Giroud in 2018-19 (11 goals, 4 assists).
– Bruno Fernandes has been directly involved in 33 goals this season, more than any other United player and showing why he is irreplaceable.
– Casemiro won the penalty in the 114th minute, assisted the equaliser in the 120th minute and assisted the winner in the 121st minute.
– He also won more duels (9) and created more chances (4) than any other United player, made eight clearances, won possession seven times and won all three of his tackles. Clutch.
– Maguire’s last three goals in all competitions have all been game-winning headers for Manchester United.
– United are the first team in history to score two goals in the 120th minute of a major European match.
– While this was also the first game in major European football history to see five goals scored after extra-time.
– This is only the second time Manchester United have won a match 5-4 in their entire history, with the other coming against Arsenal in February 1958.
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