After Manchester United scored three times in the last seven minutes of extra time to knock Lyon out and progress to a Europa League semi-final versus Athletic Bilbao, Ruben Amorim stated he had drawn on the 1999 Champions League final triumph over Bayern Munich.
Losing 1-0 going into added time goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær claimed European glory for United 26 years ago.
Amorim said: “I was watching the 1999 [Treble] documentary to have some inspiration for these moments. It was a great night, the team were tired, 4-2 with one more player, we think it’s over, but here it’s never over. Here everything is possible, you feel the environment. At 4-3, after the Bruno Fernandes penalty, we felt we could change the game.”
Harry Maguire scored the winner 34 seconds into the 121st minute after Kobbie Mainoo had made it 4-4 on the night, 6-6 on aggregate.
At the break United were 2-0 up in the leg after goals from Manuel Ugarte and Diogo Dalot and cruising through 4-2 on aggregate before strikes from Corentin Tolisso and Nicolás Tagliafico in regulation time took the tie into the added 30 minutes. Rayan Cherki (on 104 minutes) and Alexandre Lacazette’s penalty (109) put Lyon two ahead.
Maguire, like Mainoo, was pressed into service as an auxiliary No 9 as United sought salvation. “We tried to put Harry Maguire up front because he is the only one who can score a goal with a header. Kobbie Mainoo has a lack of pace in this moment because of injury, but he’s really good in short spaces,” said Amorim.
“The sound of the two last goals were amazing. It is something we can keep for the future. But in the end you go to the semi-finals but you need to win it. We just need to focus on the next stage and try and win the competition.”
The Moroccan defender Noussair Mazaroui came off at half-time and had to return home for “personal reasons”, Amorim said.
