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Lyon 2-2 Man Utd

More like Onana 2-2 Man Utd

Yuveer Madanlal
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10/4/2025
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6 min read

Ruben Amroim saw his MUFC side get a decent draw away to Lyon in their first leg of their all important quarter final tie in the Europa League.

Getting a result away in Europe is never a bad thing and there were several similarities to the game on Sunday in which United also got a decent draw against City.

However...

The manner with which the draw came about is another matter.

The entire game was nothing special as the only entertaining moment (other than the goals) was some argy-bargy between subsitute Mount and Nicolas Tagliafico.

A very flat start to the game with Lyon taking the early initiative as they had several attacks down United's right. Those attacks eventually led to a free-kick.

Then, Onana.

I feel like I don't even need to tell you that he made a cock up as that is just what he does. We also didn't need Matic to tell us what he did as we already knew Onana was shite.

A dangerous-looking ball was put into the box but without that real whip and venom. With the curl though, should everyone miss it, it would go into the goal

That is exactly what happened as all the players in the box missed it. Unfortunately, this included Onana as well, sort of. While the goalkeeper did get two hands on the ball, it did little and less to prevent it from hitting the back of the net.

Even though it bounced right in front of him, he really should've pushed it away from goal.

This wasn't the first time we've seen him make this type of mistake nor was it the only one in this game.

United then grew into it a bit more out of necessity but other than some decent openings, never really threatened Lyon's goal. Casemiro did see his bicycle kick saved after the ball popped up from a corner but that was as good as it got.

Yet when things appeared set to end 1-0 at halftime, a quick reaction from Yoro saw him guide a shot from Ugarte on target and into the goal throwing United a lifeline just before the break.

A great time to score.

The second period did have more umph but again, nothing serious as both sides kind of canceled each other out.

This is when Amorim made his changes as Zirkzee came on for Hojlund who had another poor game, with Mount, Mainoo and Lindelof (good to see them back) following not long after.

These were good substitutions are all three of Zirkzee, Mount and Mainoo made instant impacts. It looked like the team had more life in them.

As mentioned, there was that spat between Mount and Tagliafico which gave the game some bite but then, in the 89th minute, substitute Zirkzee who probably felt hard done by to not have started, proved to the manager that maybe he should be picked ahead of Hojlund as after an inch perfect cross by Bruno, the Dutchman had a simple header to put us in front.

He duely obliged and United were taking a lead back to Old Trafford.

Until Onana, again.

He had other ideas.

Lyon were obviously going to try and attack as much as they could in the dying minutes and while Dorgu should've done better in his attempts to try to make it harder for the attacker to keep the ball in, Onana really ought to have saved the shot anyway.

Andre Onana produces two howlers in draw against Lyon | Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images via The Busby Babe

Once it was kept in, the home team worked it into the box before a snapshot was hit straight at the United no 1 who instead of either holding on to it or palming it to the side, put it on a plate for Rayan Cherki who was never going to miss from such close range.

2 goals gifted to Lyon thanks to United's incompetent goalkeeper.

On the balance of play, a draw was probabaly a fair result but this was another match where victory was thrown away, thanks to ourselves.

Ruben Amorim came out after the game and said that they were disappointed to not have walked away with the win. We all are.

I think in the main, he will have been pleased that his players executed his game plan relatively well. Yes Lyon did create some good chances but overall defensively, United were solid.

Going forward though, you can see that both Garnacho and sepcifically Hojlund just aren't doing the business. The difference one saw when Zirkzee, Mount and Mainoo came on was like night and day. Amorim should maybe be looking at starting them instead.

Not the worst result but he would no doubt be fuming at his goalkeeper for throwing it away.

Ratings

Onana - 0

Mazraoui - 7

Maguire - 6

Yoro - 7.5 MOTM

Dalot - 5.5

Casemiro - 6.5

Ugarte - 6

Dorgu - 6

Garnacho - 5

Bruno - 6.5

Hojlund - 3

Zirkzee - 7

Mount - 6.5

Mainoo - 6.5

Lindelof - 6

Ruben Amorim - 6.5

Final Thoughts

Annoyed. Frustrated. Angry. Disappointed. Yet not entirely unsurprised.

When you play with a goalkeeper like that, you are always running the risk that something like this could happen. I blame Amorim more than Onana because he could've played Bayindir. He could've even brought him on.

Other than Onana looking likelier that he plays for the opposition each week than United and perhaps that Matic got in his head, United played exactly as most would've thought and executed that plan quite well.

We scored 2 good goals from two new signings and should've won the game, something that we've been saying far too often recently.

At least we take something back to Old Trafford from France but could we leave Onana there?

Leny Yoro scores first goal for Man Utd in 2-2 draw against Lyon | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)

Yuveer Madanlal

Yeah, I can talk and talk and talk about the things I love, like football and United, as you can see in this post. Once I get on a roll, it's pretty hard to stop me. This is all coming from a guy who doesn't talk that much. How weird.

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