David de Gea leapt to his right and tipped Kevin De Bruyne's shot around the post. "Vamos!" he bellowed to team-mates gathered for the Manchester City corner, banging those overworked gloves together.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who had just congratulated the Manchester United goalkeeper on his latest brilliant save, gazed around the penalty area, shaking his head.
The reactions looked different but echoed the same feeling, presumably the one felt by the 70-odd thousand United fans inside Old Trafford. It's the same thing they felt when losing 4-0 at half-time to Liverpool. It's largely the same thing they felt seven years ago, when consecutive home defeats to Liverpool and City sounded the death knell for the David Moyes era.
How much longer can this go on?
It was the 5-0 scoreline that was most damaging about the game last month against Jurgen Klopp's side, and the reason Ole Gunnar Solskjaer came as close as he did to losing his job. The Manchester derby was, in essence, no different; it was a thrashing in all but the scoreboard.
And it will prompt the same question.
The 3-0 win over a miserable Tottenham secured Solskjaer's position for at least another week and saw Antonio Conte, his most obvious and available replacement, head to north London. Yet, as the United manager likes to say, "one swallow doesn't make a summer". He knew there had to be sustained improvement, that wins over Atalanta in the Champions League and Manchester City were vital to show he could arrest a decline that has seen his United become the first to concede in 13 consecutive home matches for the first time since the 1950s.
Instead, United repeated the 'Liverpool Week': a poor Champions League performance salvaged by Ronaldo, and utter embarrassment at the hands of their domestic rivals.
Solskjaer had won four of his first eight meetings with Pep Guardiola, giving him the best win rate of any manager to face the City boss at least five times. He'd also presided over a four-game unbeaten league run against their neighbours, whose recent success relative to United – nine major trophies since the Red Devils last won anything – has seen them go from noisy to ear-splitting. The last time these teams met in front of a full crowd, a muddied Scott McTominay slid across the soaked turf after lobbing Ederson in the final seconds, a striking visual metaphor for Solskjaer's team: imperfect, unpolished, but going somewhere.
In the second half of Sunday's game, after Eric Bailly's senseless own goal and a gift for Bernardo Silva, Solskjaer's tenure entered a perverse kind of scoreline purgatory: would he be safe if it finished 2-0, or 3-0, or 4-0? Was it not bad enough that City could come to Old Trafford and treat it as a training exercise, limiting their opponents to one shot on target?
This is what Solskjaer's United have become: a listing wreck, held together by default. Results are bad, but not quite bad enough; supporters are fed up, but they won't turn on a club legend; the owners fear the risk of change more than the cost of inaction.
"I give up," said former captain Roy Keane on Sky Sports. Solskjaer won't; not after nearly three years in charge. The pedestrian, goalless second half against City will probably count in his favour with the board, too.
But 'only' losing the derby 2-0 cannot ever be acceptable. It certainly isn't what Ronaldo signed up for, and as long as things persist as they are, he'll be shaking his head for many months to come.
Abdallah Sima fires Rangers to victory in Europa League clash with Real Betis
Abdallah Sima’s second-half goal delivered a 1-0 victory for Rangers against Real Betis in their opening Europa League group match at Ibrox.
The forward poked home a shot from close range to settle a competitive match between the two of the favourites to progress to the knockout stages.
Michael Beale’s side also struck the frame of the goal twice in a strong second-half display and had goalkeeper Jack Butland to thank for making several key saves, especially in the opening period.
Rangers made four changes from the team that had defeated St Johnstone at the weekend.
There were starting places for Sima, Rabbi Matondo, Jose Cifuentes and Borna Barisic. Out dropped Danilo, Nicolas Raskin, Sam Lammers and Ridvan Yilmaz.
Betis were able to call upon the experience of Claudio Bravo to deputise for first-choice goalkeeper Rui Silva as part of six changes to the team beaten 5-0 by Barcelona at the weekend.
Rangers could have been in front within five minutes. Kemar Roofe’s searching pass sent Matondo running clear but his shot was weak and easily saved by Bravo.
Betis’ response came from a driven effort from Abdessamad Ezzalzouli that Butland did well to save before he pushed away another Ezzalzouli shot from a tight angle.
It was end to end at this point and a rare mis-step from the impressive Isco saw him drag a shot wide after good play by Hector Bellerin down the Betis right.
Ezzalzouli then lashed a shot over the top and saw another effort repelled by Butland as the Spaniards pushed for the lead.
At the other end, Sima could not get enough purchase on his stab at goal before Matondo was wasteful with another attempt before the break.
The Welshman looked to have a great chance early in the second half with Sima’s cross coming his way only for Bellerin to steer it clear for a corner.
Tom Lawrence struck the outside of a post with a long-range effort and Barisic then hit the top of a crossbar from a free-kick just outside the box after Marc Bartra had felled Roofe.
Lammers came on for the injured Lawrence and saw two efforts blocked as Rangers went looking for a winner.
It arrived after 68 minutes, Sima slamming in a loose ball as Betis failed to properly deal with a goalmouth scramble after Bravo made a stunning stop to repel Roofe’s volley.
Betis pushed for a leveller but two big saves from Butland denied substitute Rodri.
Barry Robson believes Aberdeen deserved a point against Eintracht Frankfurt
Aberdeen manager Barry Robson felt his side deserved a point from their Europa Conference League opener against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Dante Polvara stunned the home fans in the Waldstadion by cancelling out an early penalty opener before the Dons succumbed to a 2-1 defeat.
The American midfielder finished off a clinical counter-attack in the 22nd minute to net his first goal for the club and the Dons looked comfortable for the majority of the first half.
The German side stepped up a gear after the break and on-loan Leeds defender Robin Koch headed what proved to be the winner in the 61st minute.
But Frankfurt had to withstand some late pressure and unmarked Aberdeen substitute Ester Sokler missed a good chance in stoppage-time when he volleyed off target from 12 yards.
Quoted on the UEFA website, Robson said: “I am happy with the way we played and the commitment we put in, but I feel we could have deserved even more, had that once chance right before full-time whistle gone in.”
However, the Dons boss was frustrated with the manner they conceded goals.
He told RedTV: “I thought tactically we were very good, we pressed the ball at the right times. We probably could have passed it a wee bit better at times but we grew into the game.
“I am frustrated we lost (goals from) a penalty and set-play.
“That’s top, top players we are playing against, they won the Europa League not long ago and Barcelona lost here not long ago, and different teams.
“The frustration for me is that’s the type of goals we lost, ones that I think could have been avoidable.
“Listen, the players have come here and performed unbelievably well.”
Polvara admitted it was a “bittersweet game”.
“We are happy about the performance but obviously not the result,” he said. “We can take the positives from this game going forward.
“Scoring that goal was a great moment, in front of 55,000 fans. I don’t quite remember how the ball got there, it went through a couple of legs I think and then I saw that it was one of the two chances we expected we’d get before the game and I grabbed it.”
Frankfurt manager Dino Toppmoller was surprised by Aberdeen’s tactics:
“We weren’t expecting them to drop this deep but ultimately that is their choice how to play and we have to deal with it,” he said. “I am pleased with us getting the three points and the mentality we displayed.”
West Ham storm past minnows Backa Topola after early scare in Europa opener
West Ham made heavy weather of the opening match of their latest European adventure as they had to come from behind to beat Serbian minnows Backa Topola 3-1.
Headers from £38million summer signing Mohammed Kudus and substitute Tomas Soucek, both from James Ward-Prowse corners, got the Hammers’ Europa League campaign off to a winning start on a stormy Stratford night.
East London was hit by torrential rain before kick-off with water cascading through the roof onto the concourses at London Stadium.
The floodgates failed to open on the pitch in the first half, however, despite West Ham being in the rare position of dominating possession on the soggy surface.
The Hammers had 78 per cent possession, which was the exact opposite of their stats during the recent smash-and-grab win at Brighton.
But boss David Moyes got a taste of his own medicine when Angelo Ogbonna’s mistake gifted TSC, making their debut in the group stages of a European competition, a shock lead after half-time.
Until then it had been one-way traffic after Ward-Prowse had an early free-kick deflected inches over the crossbar.
Danny Ings, making his first start of the season, saw his swerving effort punched away by Serbian keeper Nikola Simic, who also denied Thilo Kehrer after Aaron Cresswell’s low cross found him at the far post.
Lucas Paqueta’s drive then forced another unorthodox save from Simic and when Pablo Fornals lifted the loose ball back into the box, Kudus planted his header over the top.
But for all West Ham’s dominance there was still a hairy moment when a corner from Petar Stanic was flicked on by Sasa Jovanovic and bounced right across the six-yard box.
The underdogs were enthusiastically cheered from the pitch at half-time by the 75-or-so Serbian fans who had made the 2,000km journey.
And those away supporters were in dreamland two minutes into the second half after Ogbonna dawdled on the halfway line, allowing Stanic to nick the ball, race clear and fire past Lukasz Fabianski.
But the Hammers, whose last European outing was their triumphant Europa Conference League final win over Fiorentina in June, hit back in the 66th minute, albeit in fortunate fashion as Said Benrahma’s cross was turned in at the far post by TSC defender Nemanja Petrovic.
The lively Kudus did get his goal four minutes later and Soucek headed in the third from another Ward-Prowse delivery – giving the former Southampton midfielder a fifth assist of the season – to finally ease West Ham nerves.
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