Manchester United has taken a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad but it was not enough for the Red Devils to finish on top of their Europa League group on Friday morning.
Instead, Erik ten Hag’s men finished Group E in second spot and will now face a knockout round playoff tie in mid-February.
As for who they will face, that remains up in the air for the time being, with United to come up one of eight potential Champions League opponents who could finish third in their group.
Ajax, Barcelona and Juventus would be the most challenging possible opposition, although United could also play Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzburg, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk and Sporting CP.
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Of course, United would have much preferred to have topped their group in the Europa League and it is why ten Hag made a late switch to push defender Harry Maguire forward to play striker.
Maguire partnered with Cristiano Ronaldo to form one of the more unlikely forward duos in the game, although United’s ultra-aggressive approach did not pay off.
Alejandro Garnacho scored the first and only goal of the game but United needed two to go ahead of Sociedad in the group.
Ronaldo missed a crucial chance to double United’s lead just before halftime when his shot drifted just over the crossbar.
Paul Scholes described ten Hag’s tactics as a “mess” post-game, criticising the United coach for putting a host players including Maguire out of position.
“I think it got a bit messy that second half, I’m not too sure what he was trying to achieve,” Scholes told BT Sport.
“I think it started with the Lindelof substitution, United first half were in complete control, Lindelof’s substitution puts Casemiro into the back four or back three, whatever it ended up.
“Marcus Rashford comes on for Van de Beek as a No.10 and it’s not Marcus’ position, he needs to be on the shoulder of people, he needs to be out wide, in space receiving the ball.
“[Harry] Maguire goes up top and it becomes a long ball game. I’m all for that, it can work, but second half I just thought… after being in complete control, it became a mess.’
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But speaking to BT Sport after the game, Ten Hag had a simple explanation for his decision to bring Maguire forward while also describing United’s attack as too “erratic” at times.
“We need options because we have problems there,” he said.
“Antony, Anthony Martial and Jadon Sancho are all not available. We needed to bring extra offensive players in, but we were a little too erratic.
“We did not put our foot on the ball as much any more, there were fewer balls in the box. We had to take risks and that is what we did – but also keep a clean sheet.”
That erratic style though was more a product of United knowing it needed two goals on Friday, with midfielder Bruno Fernandes telling BT Sport that the team “tried everything”.
“Our goal for today was to win by two goals,” he said.
“We tried everything, we took a few more risks at the end to try and get the second goal.
“We won the game against a great opponent; it wasn’t enough to win the group but it’s a win.”
Elsewhere, Arsenal is through to the Last 16 of the Europa League after a stunning strike from Kieran Tierney sealed a 1-0 win over FC Zurich.
The same goes for West Ham, who made it six wins from six attempts in Group B, running away 3-0 winners over FCSB.
