New leader as Man Utd Champions League campaigns post-Fergie ranked for wretchedness
Where does this Champions League failure rank among the half-dozen that followed Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure? It ranks the worst.
Here’s how we’ve ranked their post-Fergie Champions League campaigns, from not disgraceful to shambolic…
7) 2018/19: Ole gets the gig after one night in Paris
While Jose Mourinho was drowning, United qualified for the knockout stage with a game to spare despite winning only half of their group-stage games against Young Boys, Valencia and Juventus. Marouane Fellaini’s 91st-minute winner in their last home game was the first scored in the competition that season at Old Trafford.
Progression to a last-16 tie against PSG was not enough to save Mourinho. In came Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, on a caretaker basis, until he inspired a stunning fightback against PSG to earn the job on a permanent basis. To be fair to United, we all egged them on.
Having become the first team to progress after losing by at least two goals in a home first leg, United were drawn against Barcelona. The tie had to be flipped because the draw had United and City at home in the same week, and by the time they got to the Nou Camp, they trailed again. Was another rousing fightback on the cards?
No. They had lost four in six in the wake of the PSG hysteria and they were pumped 3-0 at Barca.
6) 2013/14: Moyes muddles though to Munich
The season of David Moyes following Fergie’s retirement was a dark time for United fans but the Champions League was far from the most catastrophic part of acclimatising to life after the great man. The Red Devils p*ssed the group stage, winning four and drawing a couple to top the table by four points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, Shakhtar Donetsk and a side Moyes would later become more familiar with…Real Sociedad.
By the time the knockout phase came around, though, Moyes was under the cosh. And a miserable 2-0 defeat at Olympiacos intensified the pressure because, well, they were absolutely sh*te in Greece. But it offered United the platform for a creditable fightback, and Robin van Persie’s hat-trick gave Moyes the best night of his brief reign.
At one point, the quarter-final against holders Bayern Munich looked set to top it. After a 1-1 draw at home in the first leg, best remembered for Danny Welbeck’s ill-advised attempt to chip Manuel Neuer, United went to the Allianz Arena and took a stunning lead through Patrice Evra’s thunderb*stard. But Bayern levelled within two minutes, the first of three goals in 17 minutes to dump United out of the Champions League, while Moyes was gone inside a fortnight.
5) 2017-18: Sevilla slump amid Mourinho, Pogba fall-out
Jose Mourinho’s first season brought Europa League glory and a Diet Treble, and the subsequent Champions League group stage was navigated with relative ease, United beating CSKA and Benfica twice, while winning and losing to Basel.
The first leg of their last-16 tie with Sevilla went to plan too, a 0-0 draw secured thanks largely to David De Gea. Much of the focus in Spain was on Paul Pogba’s mardy arse sat on the bench, and there he remained back at Old Trafford, with Marouane Fellaini given a first start in four months.
Against the fifth-best side in Spain who won only two of their group games and had never won a Champions League game in England, United were dire and deservedly fell to Wissam Ben Yedder’s double, with Romelu Lukaku’s late strike just a poor consolation. “We did our best, we tried, we lost, that’s football,” said Mourinho. “I don’t think the performance was that bad.” It was f***ing awful, Jose.
4) 2021/22: Three managers, same old sh*te
Three different managers guided United through the 21/22 Champions League as far as the last 16.
Solskjaer took charge through the first two-thirds of the group stage, during which time Cristiano Ronaldo was being useful. He scored a late winner to beat Atlanta at home and an even later leveller in Bergamo in what turned out to be Ole’s last European game in charge.
Michael Carrick took the wheel for the trip to Valencia, in which Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho did the damage. In a good way. By the time Ralf Rangnick took over, United were through and could treat the draw with Young Boys as an opportunity for the latest caretaker boss to look at his fringe players in the vain hope of cobbling together a cohesive pressing machine.
Rangnick took United to Atletico Madrid for the last 16 and Anthony Elanga earned them a decent draw in Spain. But they were Simeone-d in the second leg, losing 1-0 at home while never looking likely to break Atletico’s resistance. From there, it was a dour slog to the end of the season, with United tuning out from Rangnick while losing five of their last nine matches of a season long forgotten.
3) 2020/21: United cave in behind closed doors
At least no one was allowed in to watch this particular Champions League shame came…
United started the group stage in brilliant form, winning at PSG before battering RB Leipzig. But a wretched defeat at Istanbul Besaksehir put them on the back foot and the results were reversed through the second half of the group campaign.
A 3-1 home defeat to Neymar-inspired PSG sent United into their final game at Leipzig needing only a point to secure their place in the last 16. They were 2-0 down inside 13 minutes and three down with a quarter of the match remaining. A fightback was attempted, with United pulling it back to 3-2 with eight minutes remaining but the equaliser they needed never came. They dropped into the Europa League and reached the final only for David de Gea to go ghost for the penalty shoot-out.
2) 2015/16: Van Gaal creates ‘Powell for Mata’ legacy
Louis van Gaal’s first season was spent outside of Europe altogether and though the Dutchman got United back in to the Champions League for his second campaign, he might as well not have bothered.
The draw, after beating Club Brugge in a qualifying play-off, popped United into a p*ss-easy-looking group with PSV, Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow. But the Red Devils managed only two wins and the most shambolic of their three defeats, at Wolfsburg on the final matchday, condemned United to the Europa League.
When Van Gaal’s name comes up, it is hard for United fans to avoid Nam-style flashbacks to Wolfsburg. Nick Powell for Juan Mata still baffles, with the youngster who had not been seen the first team in the previous 16 months finishing the game in the same side as Guillermo Varela and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson. Into the Europa League they dropped, only briefly, before they were dumped out by Liverpool.
1) 2023/24: Rock-bottom
Coming second to Bayern Munich would have been just fine. Coming third behind Bayern Munich and either Copenhagen or Galatasaray would have been a massive disappointment. Coming fourth was an almighty f***-up.
United somehow managed to score exactly as many goals as Bayern through the group stage but somehow ship 15 goals as they contrived to somehow concede six goals across two games against Galatasaray. Andre Onana made some costly errors but this was a disaster that cannot be pinned solely on one man.
In the end they bowed out with a meek defeat to a Bayern Munich side who could barely be arsed.