Robbie Savage slammed Tahith Chong’s ‘lazy’ attempt at a finish which came just seconds before Astana found an equaliser in their 2-1 win over Manchester United.
With United already qualified for the Europa League knockout stages, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer named three debutants and seven teenagers in his starting XI on Thursday evening.
Jesse Lingard, who captained the side in Kazakhstan, broke the deadlock with a cool finish past Nenad Eric in the 10th minute and the Red Devils looked to be cruising towards a comfortable victory.
After a neat one-two with Angel Gomes, Luke Shaw put the ball on a plate for Chong to double United’s lead in the 54th minute, but the young Dutch forward will be having nightmares about what followed.
Facing an empty goal, Chong somehow managed to sky his ball way over the bar and held his head in his hands and his team-mates looked on in shock.
Speaking on BT Sport‘s commentary, Savage said: ‘Gomes and Shaw do every so well. Shaw with the one-two, good cut back and then Chong, open net, I don’t know how he’s missed that!
‘It was a great opportunity for him to get on the scoresheet for Manchester United. Lazy!
‘Football is all about those fine margins. Chong should have put United 2-0 up and 38 seconds later [Dmitri] Shomko hits a strike into that far corner past [Lee] Grant.’
To make matters worse for Chong, Astana immediately went up the other end of the pitch and leveled as Shomko angled a powerful shot past Grant from a tight angle.
United’s inexperience showed as the game wore on and Astana took the lead for the first time in the 62nd minute as Di’Shon Bernard directed Antonio Rukavina’s cross into his own net.
Solskjaer decided to bring Chong off shortly after Bernard’s own goal and D’Mani Bughail-Mellor came on in his place for the remainder of the game.
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