Michael Carrick had seen it in his players, he said, but no one else can. Not so far in the Premier League, where they have suffered their worst start in 40 years , and not here in Madrid, where Manchester United's head coach insisted they would embrace the challenge. The reaction was coming, he promised; he had looked at them and was sure of it. Instead, they were a goal down after just 53 seconds and all that came was the old familiar sting, that early opener from Pablo Barrios and a second from Ademola Lookman condemning them to another defeat.
So much for a reaction, a rebellion: in their place a kind of resignation, a sense that maybe this is just United's reality: a game that began badly, did not get very much better, and finished even worse. True, the result could have been different, Bryan Mbeumo unable to convert two first-half chances while Bruno Fernandes struck the bar and put an opportunity wide, but that did not diminish the feeling that something is really wrong. It may even have deepened it.
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Even the late, harsh red card for Leny Yoro which can be offered in mitigation did not change a simple fact: at the end of another insipid night, United lost. United are lost, perhaps.
"Sometimes when it's not quite going for you, you see who's really there," United's manager said the night before, a message that perhaps hinted at something rotten beneath the surface, but on the opening goal no one was really there. They weren't there on the left, where Lee Kang-in's pass sent Álex Baena into a wide-open space; they weren't there to close him down as he cut into the area; and they weren't there on the right either, where Barrios was running through alone. Baena laid across and Barrios's shot went off Ayden Heaven and into the net.
Barrios held up six fingers, the number of the club captain, Koke, whose mother had died in the hours before kick-off. From the bench Koke's shirt was raised. All around the Metropolitano, supporters roared. This was set, it seemed.
Although another effort from Baena soon hit Lisandro Martínez, United did find a foothold and could have found a way back. Mbeumo had two clear chances in quick succession: the first, after nice footwork on the right, went wide; the second, following a neat exchange with Youri Tielemans, was stopped by Jan Oblak on the other side. From the corner, Carlos Baleba headed straight at the keeper.
That was short-lived, though, Atlético soon asserting themselves, moving the ball with a pace and conviction United couldn't match. Barrios and Baena couldn't be controlled, and the spaces they opened were vast. The pressure United applied tended to arrive late or not at all. On the touchline too the contrast was stark: Diego Simeone prowled, Carrick stood motionless in the corner of his technical area, chin in his hand. The Argentinian was booked for waving an imaginary card. Maybe United's manager could try that. Something, anyway.
By half-time, Atlético had enjoyed 66% of possession. They could also have had a greater lead. Álex Grimaldo rattled a superb free‑kick off the bar and just before the break Johnny Cardoso's sweeping finish was ruled out when the video assistant referee revealed a Marcos Llorente handball in the buildup. The second half then began with a neatly floated ball from Barrios setting up Julián Álvarez to volley against a post. Again, the space, time and the ease with which the move played out was just too big.
At the other end, Bruno Fernandes then had a wonderful opportunity to level it. Tielemans did superbly to find him, the ball sitting up and Oblak coming off his line to meet him – the kind of opportunity, in short, that is supposed to end only one way but that this time ended another.
United's captain lifted the ball past the keeper and wide. Soon, Atlético were back again, Baena bending a shot wide, although Atlético appeared to have settled, the game drifting. That perhaps suited United: with Atlético's threat no longer so present, the ball was theirs for the first time and the lead was still only one, opportunity there. Fernandes, increasingly involved, swung a shot against the bar.
Which was when it finally, definitively and far too easily fell apart. Suddenly, on 74 minutes, Jonathan David was running through the middle on to a Morten Hjulmand ball. Yoro went with him, grappling as they ran, and the pair fell. Although Glenn Nyberg didn't give a foul, allowing the move to play out with David scrambling the ball to Lookman, a voice in his ear called him to the screen to watch the challenge again. When he returned, he had a red in his hand.
The decision felt harsh. It was also the end. Three minutes later, Atlético were running through United again. Grimaldo slotted a pass into David, inside the area and, although his shot was saved by Senne Lammens, Lookman was there to score. Heaven and Fernandes were removed; this was done, nothing left to fight for, not that they had fought much in the first place, the reaction postponed for some other day.
