Manchester United may have beaten arch-rival Liverpool to a spot in this season’s Champions League, but it is certainly making hard work of qualifying from Group A. On Tuesday night, the Red Devils were very fortunate to beat Copenhagen 1-0, even though they rank 36 places above the Danish side in the UEFA club coefficient.
Copenhagen had 16 shots, more than Man United, as well as exactly half of the possession. It hit the post when the game was goalless, and had the chance to equalize from the penalty spot in stoppage time, only for André Onana to make a heroic save. This was quite simply a must-win game for Erik ten Hag’s side, which had already lost to Bayern Munich and Galatasaray in its opening two matches. One of the players who made its life difficult was former Liverpool goalkeeper Kamil Grabara. Signed for $317k (£261k/€300k) back in 2016, Grabara would never make a senior appearance for the Reds, spending time out on loan at Aarhus in Denmark (twice) and Huddersfield in the Championship before a permanent $3.2m (£2.6m/€3m) exit to Copenhagen in 2021.
Here, he produced a string of fine saves, the best of which denied Christian Eriksen. Marcus Rashford pulled the ball back from the byline, and Rasmus Højlund then laid if off for Eriksen to lash it goalwards, but Grabara got down rapidly to his right and got a strong hand to it. TNT Sports commentator Darren Fletcher would hail it as a ‘brilliant’ stop. Later, at 1-0, Scott McTominay fed Alejandro Garnacho, but the Polish ‘keeper was able to beat away the first strike before reacting quickly to get the slightest of touches to McTominay’s follow-up.
