Manchester United salvage their season with breathtaking comeback for the ages | OneFootball

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It was Bilbao or bust. Just when it seemed it would be bust, Manchester United condemning their season to utter failure, they instead salvaged it. They produced one of their latest and greatest comebacks. Harry Maguire headed them to Bilbao, for a Europa League semi-final against Athletic, perhaps for a return to the Basque Country for the final. They may yet get Champions League football, some £100m in broadcast, matchday and commercial income.

They may yet get redemption. It will be quite a rescue act as they seemed to capitulate when Lyon scored four unanswered goals. Then came the United response, three of their own, deep into extra time. After conceding two goals in seven minutes, United scored three in eight. Six-four down on aggregate after 113 minutes of an epic tie, they prevailed 7-6.

The late rally was led by the outstanding Bruno Fernandes, the captain coolly slotting in a penalty that may have been generously awarded after Casemiro went to ground under Thiago Almada’s challenge.

Then Kobbie Mainoo, sent on as an emergency striker, finishing like a centre-forward, taking Casemiro’s pass and curling a shot into the corner. Then Maguire, the 121st-minute hero heading in a cross from Casemiro. Him again, the Brazilian, the serial Champions League winner taking himself closer to Europa League glory. It threatened to be the last European night at Old Trafford, potentially for years. It became a special occasion. “In this stadium, in this club, you always have the feeling anything can happen,” said Ruben Amorim. So it appeared on a night of credibility-defying drama. “That is why we like this sport so much and all the frustration the coach has, the bad moments, when you have moments like this it is all worth it. We can forget for a few minutes what kind of season we are having.”

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Manuel Ugarte puts Manchester United ahead after a fine sweeping move (Getty Images)

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Diogo Dalot slots in United's second goal on stroke of half-time (Reuters)

And yet, perhaps, they are saving their season. Galvanised by their plight, motivated by the prize, United played with the air of men who knew what was at stake. When ignominy beckoned, they responded. For Amorim, spurred on by a glimpse into United’s past, there was a night to make history. “I was watching the 1999 [Treble] documentary to have some inspiration for these moments,” he said. As the watching Sir Alex Ferguson may have again remarked, football, bloody hell.

For Lyon, it was merely hell. They could be forgiven for wondering what had hit them. They had mustered a terrific fightback of their own. At 2-0, they were seemingly down and out. At 4-2 up, they only had 10 minutes to see through. Yet there was a cruelty for Paulo Fonseca and his team. United may be 14th in the Premier League but they are the only unbeaten team in the Europa League, a different beast in Europe. When embarrassment was on the cards, they produced excitement.

Where to start? For an hour or so, this was one of United’s best performances of the season, leaving everyone wondering where this kind of football had been all year. They began well. They were rewarded with a goal. The dynamic Alejandro Garnacho took Fernandes’s pass and turned sharply in the penalty area to cut the ball back. Manuel Ugarte sidefooted in his second United goal.

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Corentin Tolisso scores to get Lyon back in the game (Reuters)

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Corentin Tolisso is dismissed late in the game after kick-starting Lyon’s comeback (Reuters)

As United continued to push, Casemiro had a low shot pushed just past the post by Lucas Perri. It was terrific goalkeeping, but the Brazilian was beaten again on the stroke of half-time. Dalot latched on to Maguire’s long pass to angle a low shot beyond Perri. A wing-back in the box, scoring goals: this may be part of Amorim’s vision.

Meanwhile, Fernandes was brilliant, almost scoring one of the great United goals when he volleyed Dalot’s long pass against the bar, twice also coming close to spectacular goals.

For Fonseca, barred from the touchline for nine months in French football for an altercation with a referee, the view from the technical area surely was not enjoyable initially. Yet he took advantage of his greater involvement to change the game with his substitutes. In particular, the introduction of Alexandre Lacazette provided a lifeline. He gave Lyon a focal point in the box. United creaked under pressure.

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Kobbie Mainoo's equaliser gives United hope they can win (Getty Images)

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Harry Maguire's winner sends United into the Europa League semi-finals (Getty)

Corentin Tolisso headed in from six yards after Casemiro failed to clear a free kick and the substitute Lacazette glanced the ball into the midfielder’s path. Six minutes later, Lyon struck again, Nicolas Tagliafico angling in a shot from Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s cross before Andre Onana could claw it back from behind the line. Lacazette followed up to make sure anyway. For Onana there could, eventually, be the relief that his first-leg errors did not cost United; premature as his dancing celebrations of Ugarte’s opener proved, he ended the night jumping into Amorim’s arms in delight.

Others crossed the divide between hero and villain. Tolisso departed, a trip on the raiding Leny Yoro bringing him a second yellow card. It gave United a man advantage, yet, a quarter of an hour later, Lyon had a goal advantage, the excellent Rayan Cherki drilling the ball into the bottom corner after a burst from the replacement Malick Fofana. Scorer of a 95th-minute equaliser in Lyon, he struck even later, leaving Onana motionless.

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Manchester United pulled off a comeback for the ages to reach Europa League semi-finals (AP)

For a while, Lyon were magnificent with 10 men. Then the dynamic Fofana was tripped by Luke Shaw, a United substitute, and Lacazette converted the penalty. So it was 4-2, with United heading out, with Fonseca’s changes working better than Amorim’s.

Until they weren’t. Until the substitute Mainoo scored and Casemiro starred and Maguire wrote his name into Old Trafford folklore. Like Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 1999, but as a centre-back shunted into attack because of his aerial ability. “I just see one guy who is good in the box,” said Amorim. And the midfielder Mainoo proved another who was good in the box. “A win like that can bring so much momentum,” said the 120th-minute scorer. “We're rolling the snowball and it could get bigger and bigger.” And now the snowball rolls on to Bilbao.