Christian Eriksen was slammed for an ‘unacceptable’ admission in a post-match interview following Manchester United’s disappointing Europa League draw with Twente.
Eriksen’s crisp 35th-minute strike appeared to be taking United to victory in their opening European fixture, but the midfielder then gave the ball away to allow Twente to equalise in the second half.
Manchester United pushed for a winner in the remaining 20 minutes but were stifled by a team sitting fourth in the Eredivisie table.
Eriksen gave an honest interview to TNT Sports after the draw, admitting Twente ‘looked like they wanted it more’ than the Premier League giants.
‘It’s disappointing,’ Eriksen said. ‘We wanted more in the end but it wasn’t good enough.
‘They looked like they wanted it more than us and that can’t be right. That was said in the dressing room.
‘Personally you score and think you’re going to be the matchwinner and then it goes the other way. We didn’t lose but it feels like a loss.’
Eriksen’s admission that Twente ‘wanted is more’ than Manchester United did not go down well with pundits Owen Hargreaves and Karen Carney.
‘It was interesting what he said there about them wanting it more,’ Hargreaves said. ‘Obviously you can’t have that.
‘I didn’t get that impression myself. I thought United’s heads went down a bit after the goal and that’s not good enough. They didn’t get the job done.’
Carney added: ‘To hear that, you can’t have that. That’s unacceptable.
‘You’re at home, you’re winning, you should want it more and be ruthless. I don’t see the ruthless edge.’
Manchester United boss Ten Hag, meanwhile, felt his team ‘dropped the level’ after an encouraging first 45 minutes.
‘We kept them alive, 1-0 up, controlling the game you have to be consistent and keep going,’ said Ten Hag, who used to play for Twente. ‘In the second half we dropped the level, gave the goal away.
‘We didn’t finish it off, we had to go for the second goal and so they stay alive and we get punished with a mistake from ourselves.’
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