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Slutski, Van Gaal digest game of contrasting halves

The coaches agreed Manchester United's draw at CSKA Moskva was a game of two halves, with Louis van Gaal's side initially too slow and Leonid Slutki's unable to maintain their tempo.

Van Gaal bemoans "unlucky" United
  • Manchester United come from behind to earn a draw at CSKA Moskva
  • For Leonid Slutski, CSKA did not have the legs to maintain their first-half supremacy
  • Louis van Gaal says Manchester United's increased second-half tempo was the key

Leonid Slutski, CSKA Moskva coach
We showed very good quality in the first half. Things were working well for us and we might have gone even further in front. After half-time, though, we didn't manage to play well enough on the counterattaack.

Looking at it, if you feel fatigue, mistakes happen. And given the current condition of Alan Dzagoev and Roman Eremenko, and Bibras Natcho's injury, we didn't have a player to dictate play in the middle of the park.

We had to defend a lot and when you do that against a really good team then it's hard to avoid conceding goals. It's a shame but there are reasons why we couldn't continue playing at our best in the second half. A win would have given us a lot of cause for confidence in the group, but we still have a chance after this draw.

 

Louis van Gaal, Manchester United manager
It's the first time he [Anthony Martial] has done it [handball in the penalty area] and there always has to be a first time, but it was very unlucky because we controlled the game.

I don't think we played fast enough, though, when we had possession – we were too slow in the first half. We improved that in the second half and scored a fantastic goal. We could have won but 'could have' doesn't count in football.

We played at a higher tempo [in the second half]. We switched the ball from side to side more and that's also why we got the goal and created more chances and didn't give too much away.

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