Juventus 1 - 2 United

Can't believe we won this game. This United team really seems to be making progress now, perhaps not in quality, but definitely in character. This same team would have been dead and buried if we played this game in September and Juventus went ahead like today. After Juve scored their peach of a goal, they were all over us for about 15 minutes. They could have easily gone 3 goals up but missed some easy chances and also hit the woodwork. But our players did not give up and I loved that. 

We rode our luck a bit today but I actually enjoyed our performance. I thought we defended reasonably well, nothing our players could do about Ronaldo's goal, our midfield play was decent too. Our players looked up for it from the off - we don't say that often...do we? 

I never (or let's say rarely) doubted the talent we've got in our squad but I did question our players' commitment. At the beginning of the season Martial and Pogba looked uninterested. Lindelof a shambles. And quite a few players were off form. Now Martial is in the form of his life. Lindelof has improved. The likes of Smalling, Mata, Herrera, Shaw and Young are putting in good shifts. Pogba has been having an impact on games - not that he was great today but he did win us a freekick which was brilliantly converted by Juan Mata. 

Given our recent comebacks, when Mata scored, I actually had a feeling we'd go on and win it....and somehow we actually did. Rashford won a freekick on the left, Young delivered a brilliant ball which troubled arguably Europe's best defence and ended at the back of the net. Three points won and we now have a really good chance of progressing into the next round of the Champions League. I really don't want to see United end in the Europa League. 

Even the biggest critics of Jose Mourinho need to admit that he had his tactics spot on tonight. United were playing one of Europe's best teams in a stadium where they've only lost twice in 50 odd games. You'd be unrealistic if you thought Juventus wouldn't be superior today. They were superior. But our players, perhaps with some luck, kept themselves in the game and this allowed Mourinho to make three changes that had an impact on the game. Mata scored our first. Rashford won us the freekick on the left that led to the second and Fellaini's leap was essential in the lead up to our winner. A job well done. 

City next. This City side is miles ahead of United but so are Juventus and we won. So let's see what happens on Sunday. A loss will simply put us too far away from the likes of City, Chelsea and Liverpool. A win will put us in a very interesting position. Come on United!