Manchester United: Pogba opposed Cristiano Ronaldo

The French midfielder prevented his Portuguese teammate from taking the last-minute penalty against Aston Villa.

Manchester United fell for the first time this season on Saturday when they lost at home to Aston Villa (0-1). An infuriating defeat that could have been avoided if Bruno Fernandes had converted his penalty in stoppage time.

A laudable but detrimental intervention by Pogba

Usually very skillful in this exercise, the Portuguese midfielder was totally lacking this time. He sent the leather well over the frame, missing the opportunity to save the draw for his team. A failure that he will certainly ruminate on for a long time.

Fernandes was therefore the unfortunate hero of this game. A label that he could have escaped since it was not he who was supposed to execute the sentence, but his compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo.

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So why didn’t CR7 take charge of a set piece? For the simple reason that Paul Pogba prevented him from doing so. Just after the referee indicated the small white dot on the surface, the Frenchman was seen calling out the five-time Ballon d’Or to ask him to let Fernandes shoot. The initiative was laudable, but so far it was not very inspired on the part of La Pioche.