LYON, France — It finished 2-2 between Lyon and Manchester United in their UEFA Europa League quarterfinal first leg Thursday, but in the personal battle between André Onana and Nemanja Matić, it was a comprehensive victory for the Serbian midfielder.
Onana made two catastrophic mistakes — including one deep into stoppage time — to gift Lyon both goals and leave the tie in the balance ahead of the second leg in Manchester next week. For the Cameroon international, the timing couldn’t have been much worse, coming just a day after he was labeled “one of the worst goalkeepers in United’s history.”
It was a jibe aimed by Matić in response to Onana claiming that United are “way better” than Lyon amid their war of words Wednesday. Onana was wrong in his assessment of Lyon, and the French side will head to Old Trafford believing it can reach the semifinals.
If Onana performs in a similar manner in seven days, they will almost certainly dump United out. Ruben Amorim was philosophical afterward, but perhaps only because he’s smart enough to know that there’s not much he can do about his goalkeeper until the summer at the earliest. Then the gloves might, quite literally, be off.
“It can happen,” Amorim said.
“If you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes. If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months. The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus.
“I felt the dressing room really quiet. We draw away in Europe — that is always hard, but the team is suffering, we need to change that.”
This has been a miserable trip for Onana. His comments about Lyon were leaped upon by Matić, who went in two-footed as if he were contesting a midfield duel. The ill feeling extended into the stadium, and from the moment Onana stepped onto the pitch at Groupama Stadium more than an hour before kickoff, he was whistled by the home fans. It was the same when he came out for his warmup and when he took his first touch a couple of minutes into the game.
After 25 minutes, the boos had turned to cheers and that was down to Onana, too.
Thiago Almada clipped in a free kick from the left, which evaded everyone. Onana went down to gather it, only for the ball to bounce just before him and then up into the roof of the net.
He lay motionless, face down in the turf, for a moment before picking himself back up to be met by more taunts from the Lyon fans. Matić — who spent the evening on the bench — did his best to stop a wry smile creeping across his face.
United hit back with a goal from Leny Yoro just before halftime. And when substitute Joshua Zirkzee headed in a second two minutes from time, Onana might have hoped his error would be forgotten.
But with United on course for a crucial European victory away from home, Georges Mikautadze fired a shot straight at the goalkeeper, and when the ball rebounded back into the penalty area it was tucked away by Rayan Cherki for a 94th-minute equalizer. Deuce over the 90 minutes then, but game, set and match to Matić.
“The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game — this is the best way to help any player,” Amorim said.
“It’s to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve and then put the player in.
“There’s nothing I can say to Andre in this moment. The most important thing is to be natural and then, when the time comes, I will choose the best XI to play. But I’m really confident in Andre.”
Having spent his news conference Wednesday defending Onana, Amorim was at it again after full time. He did his best to fend off each question, but it would have been frustrating for the Portuguese coach that an otherwise positive team display was overshadowed in such a way.
United looked in control for much of the game and had chances to score more through Rasmus Højlund, Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho. Højlund’s form, in particular, is becoming more of an issue with each passing game, and he was fortunate to make it past the hour mark when he was finally replaced with Zirkzee.
It was Onana, though, who stole the headlines and for all the wrong reasons. In a rare answer that wasn’t about his goalkeeper at his prematch news conference Wednesday, Amorim explained how important winning the Europa League will be for the club’s future.
It was another night that suggested Onana might not be part of it.
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