Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told Di’Shon Bernard to put his own goal behind him and remember the rest of his ‘excellent’ performance following Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat away to Astana.
United fielded one of their youngest ever sides as three debutants and seven teenagers were named in Solskjaer’s starting XI for Thursday’s Europa League Group L clash in Kazakhstan.
The Red Devils had already qualified for the knockout stages of the competition and Solskjaer was keen to give his academy prospects a run out at the Astana Arena.
Jesse Lingard broke the deadlock with a fine finish past Nenad Eric in the 10th minute and United looked to be sailing towards a comfortable victory.
However, Dmitri Shomko equalised for Astana in the 55th minute before Bernard directed Antonio Rukavina’s cross into his own net to give the hosts the lead.
Solskjaer had a word with Bernard as United’s players headed towards the tunnel and the Norwegian lifted the lid on their conversation in his post-match press conference.
‘He was disappointed and he’ll remember that from his debut,’ Solskjaer said.
‘But I wanted him to remember the other 92 minutes and every other touch he had.
‘Because he defended well, he had some last-ditch clearances, I thought he was excellent and he was composed on the ball as well.
‘Sometimes strikers miss chances, sometimes defenders score an own goal, that’s partly down to luck and bad luck and I thought he did really well. That’s why I wanted him to remember this game for.’
On Chong’s shocking miss just after half-time, Solskjaer said: ‘No forward or striker should worry about missing chances.
‘That’s about growing up, I think I did as well!’
Solskjaer confirmed that he plans to play a more experienced side at home to AZ Alkmaar in two weeks’ time.
‘Of course, we wanted to win this game then we win the group,’ he added.
‘It will be a mixed team, some of these players played really well today and we will probably see them again.
‘But with the home game there’ll be some more first-team players.’
