MANCHESTER United pulled together in their city’s time of darkness, showing no little skill and spirit to overcome Ajax and win the Europa League.
Less than 48 hours after a terror attack killed 22 people and injured many more at Manchester Arena, the club’s supporters, players and staff stood unbowed in Stockholm.
United embraced the spirit shown by the city they represent, with Jose
Mourinho’s men securing a place in next season’s Champions League as goals from Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan secured a 2-0 triumph against Ajax.
Nerves were settled at the Friends Arena when Pogba – playing in his second match since his father Fassou Antoine died aged 79 – opened the scoring with a low shot that deflected in off Davinson Sanchez.
United’s goal was just reward for a bright start that soon tapered off, only for Mourinho’s men to return impressively from the break as Mkhitaryan directed home acrobatically.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ajax’s callow side – the youngest ever in a major European final – were unable to find a way back as United added to this season’s EFL Cup triumph.
Europa League glory means United join Ajax, Bayern Munich and Juventus as the only clubs to have won all three major UEFA trophies, including the now-defunct European Cup Winners’ Cup, as well as the Club World Cup or the Intercontinental Cup.
But after a tragic few days for their city, most important was their victorious show of defiance that all connected to the club can be proud of.
Mourinho’s men wore black armbands in Stockholm, where a minute’s silence quickly turned into applause. Armed police patrolled the perimeter of a ground that witnessed United’s 64th match of a draining campaign, with the Europa League taking them more than 15,000 miles.
There were surprisingly few signs of lethargy early on, though. Pogba’s volley wide after 24 seconds was a shot across the bows for an Ajax defence dragged all over by Marcus Rashford.
The Dutch giants were relieved to see Juan Mata’s fizzing cross evade Marouane Fellaini before they flickered into life, with Sergio Romero, selected ahead of David De Gea, denying Bertrand Traore.
Yet hope was soon dampened as within minutes Ajax’s first major European final in 21 years became an uphill battle. Neat play down the right ended with Pogba collecting the ball on the edge of the box. The Frenchman opened up his body and took a low 20-yard shot that deflected off Sanchez, wrong-footing goalkeeper Andre Onana and rippling the back of the net.
United’s travelling hordes erupted as Pogba punched his chest, celebrating a goal that captain Antonio Valencia soon attempted to add to with a driving run and shot. That was the last chance of note United would muster as Ajax began to settle, although dawdling Sanchez was fortunate not to be picked off by Rashford.
Daley Blind brought a timely end to a slaloming run by Traore as the Dutch side were afforded too much time in possession, but a lack of cutting edge meant they were unable to take advantage. United re-grouped at the break and capitalised three minutes after the restart.
Chris Smalling rose to meet a corner from the right, heading on for Mkhitaryan to smartly lift into the roof of the net in front of United’s raucous support.
Any building tension was released and Ajax struggled to respond to the second-half sucker punch, with Fellaini trying to compound matters with a header saved by Onana.
Tempers began to fray on the touchline after a late Mata challenge, while substitute Jesse Lingard was denied a late goal by Sanchez’s recovery challenge. Donny van de Beek was unable to truly test Romero as Ajax looked to claw back a consolation, but it was not to be for Amsterdam side.
Wayne Rooney came on for the dying embers and was handed the captain’s armband by Valencia, celebrating wildly with his team-mates at the final whistle.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here