Erik ten Hag insisted he had no regrets about Manchester United’s failed Champions League campaign despite finishing bottom of their group after a 1-0 defeat by Bayern Munich.
Kingsley Coman scored the only goal of the game to ensure United finished with a fourth defeat, the full‑time whistle greeted with boos by those who were left at Old Trafford.
When the draw was made, United were confident of progress at the expense of Copenhagen – who qualified alongside Bayern – and Galatasaray, but they fell well short, securing a solitary win in six matches. Their failure means they will not even get to play in the Europa League in the new year.
Asked if he looked back on the group stage with regret, Ten Hag told TNT Sports: “Not regret, no. We didn’t make it, but we have to accept it. We have to learn from it. We played some good football in the Champions League. We have to take belief into the Premier League because we want to qualify again for the Champions League.”
United mustered a single shot on target in a must-win game and were secondary in every department on another underwhelming night. It meant they completed their worst Champions League campaign with four points after conceding 15 goals in their six fixtures, the worst defensive record by a Premier League club in the competition.
Ten Hag said of the group stage: “I look to my team and we had the opportunities in games, in winning positions, we scored many goals but we have to see we gave it away sometimes by individual errors, not one player but more players, not every time the same, so we gave the opponent the opportunities to return. We had very good spells so we have to do better but the fact is not enough points. We are disappointed as a group, as a manager I am disappointed. We should have done better.”
Ten Hag had numerous absentees and lost Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw to injuries in this defeat. “It is simple today we have to make subs and we are losing players and players who are very decisive for our game, who can make the difference and in many games it was the case in this campaign that we did not always have the players available we wanted to play,” Ten Hag said.
“Now I give you a reason but don’t see it as an excuse, even when we are not all on board, we have to win because that is the target.”
