Bayern Munich knocked out Man United out of the Champions League on Tuesday night to complete an embarrassing campaign for Erik ten Hag.
United went down in a 1-0 defeat against Bayern at Old Trafford to ensure they finished bottom of Group A with just four points from their six games. They needed to beat Bayern and hope Copenhagen drew with Galatasaray in the other game to scrape into the knockout stages. But instead slumped out with a whimper.
Defeat was their seventh at Old Trafford already this season and their 12th in 24 games across all competitions. It came courtesy of Kingsley Coman, who found the bottom corner in a second half which didn’t contain a single shot on target from United.
Ten Hag refused to criticise his players for their efforts against Bayern. Instead, he pointed to failures in previous matches. United threw away a 2-0 lead to lose 4-3 at Copenhagen in November and then drew 3-3 with Galatasaray, having once again led 2-0 early on in Istanbul.
It was those defeats which ultimately did the damage and ensured United claimed the unwanted record of becoming the first Premier League side to finish bottom of their Champions League group on two occasions. United first did it back in 2005/06 when Sir Alex Ferguson ’s side picked up just six points from a group containing Villareal, Benfica and Lille.
Back then, United drew 0-0 on both occasions with Villarreal, failed to beat Lille and lost their final game 2-1 to Benfica to crash out of the Champions League in the group stage for the first time in 11 years. Such failure was an uncommon event under Ferguson, but is becoming a habit under Ten Hag, who is under huge pressure after picking up just four points to record United’s worst-ever effort in a Champions League group.
“I think they showed enough effort out there, the team did very good,” Ten Hag said after the Bayern loss. “We were very good in the pressing, in the defensive organisation and we had many ball recoveries especially in the second half. But we didn’t take the benefits from that and we played against a strong side. Bayern are a good team and even when they’re not in the game, they have to just use one moment of individual class and that happened today.
“We know we want to be more consistent and that’s down to me as a manager. I have to guide them and the players have to take the responsibility so we have to do that together.”
United now face a very difficult trip to Anfield to play Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday. Ten Hag’s side are sixth in the table following their 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth last weekend.