Cunha's two goals complete Manchester United comeback against Roma
Seven Lights
Manchester United came from two goals down to beat Roma 3-2 in the Champions League at Old Trafford on Tuesday, ending a nine-game winless run and giving the manager Michael Carrick a result that eased pressure on his position.
Roma led 2-0 after 17 minutes against a United side carrying a nine-match drought into the tie, and arrived at Old Trafford unbeaten in their 10 Serie A games this season. United had won only twice in all competitions before Tuesday. The captain Bruno Fernandes reduced the deficit from the penalty spot, and Matheus Cunha then scored twice within three minutes of the second half to turn the match, the comeback completed in front of an Old Trafford crowd that had braced for another defeat.
BBC Sport reported that the winless run had left Carrick’s position increasingly precarious, and that the poor start had left United facing another damaging defeat before the second-half recovery.
Cunha was sent off late in the game, Sky Sports reported, leaving United to see the match out and claim their first win in ten attempts, interrupting the deepest winless stretch of a troubled season.
For Carrick, the fortnight had carried increasing questions about his standing at the club. The comeback came with a display of character and quality that had been absent through the drought, and he was able to breathe a little easier, as BBC Sport put it, after an unlikely success.
The match joined the ledger of the competition’s great turnarounds. BBC Sport set it among the modern benchmarks of Champions League comebacks, alongside Tottenham’s late elimination of Ajax in 2019, Liverpool’s 4-0 semi-final over Barcelona that same year, and Barcelona’s six-minute finale against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017.
United carry the win into the international break; Roma return to Serie A duty still among the league’s unbeaten sides.