Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag admits repeat of horror ending with Sevilla is 'not acceptable'
- Planet Sport writer
- 19 April 2023
A place in the Europa League semi-final will be up for grabs when the Red Devils take on Sevilla in the second leg of their already dramatic quarter-final.
Manchester United took an early 2-0 goal lead in the opening half of the first leg at Old Trafford, but went on to suffer a nightmare evening.
Centre-backs Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez both picked up injuries while Bruno Fernandes was booked and got himself suspended for the return leg.
Sevilla capitalised on that disruption and recovered from a shocking start to snatch a last-gasp draw thanks to late own goals from Malacia and Harry Maguire.
The abolition of away goals softens the blow but now United must raise their performance against six-time Europa League winners Sevilla at the hostile Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.
"It's a tie about two legs," Ten Hag said. "I think we play for over 60 minutes quite well and then the last 30 minutes we dropped the level and we became passive.
"It's not acceptable, we know that, and you see what happened when you are playing a game for only 60 minutes.
"You can't do it and when you do it you get punished, so we have to be aware of it.
"We have to use emotion as a tool but you have to control it as well.
"You have to put it in the right moment, so the timing for that is important and that is in big games especially, you have to know when you use it and when definitely not."
