Louis van Gaal believes Manchester United are “on schedule” to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League after tonight’s 1-1 draw with CSKA Moscow.
Ivorian striker Seydou Doumbia gave the Army Men the lead in the 15th minute, but Anthony Martial’s equaliser gave the Reds a share of the spoils in freezing conditions at the Arena Khimki.
And in his post-match conference, the United manager believed that the draw was a fair result tonight.
I knew in advance that it would be a very difficult game because CSKA are very well organised and compact,” he said.
They also had the present of a penalty from Martial, so it was more difficult for us, because they could play more compact.
We could not play at a high tempo, it was too slow in the first half. We had to improve at switching from side to side and we did that. We could have won but a draw was deserved.
van Gaal refused to blame Martial for giving away the penalty leading to CSKA’s goal, instead praising the 19-year old character’s in bouncing back from his mistake.
Martial is a human being. He reacted and it’s a stupid reaction, but sometimes these things happen.
He said it’s the first time it has happened to him, that he gives away a penalty. But I was very happy with his performance.
Despite the result, the Dutchman believes that the Reds are on track to qualify for the knockout stages, with two home games at Old Trafford still to come.
We are now on schedule after the PSV Eindhoven defeat. Now we have two home matches and we are very strong at home.
I hope we can win these games so we are qualified or nearly qualified, but we also have a game away to Wolfsburg.
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