Manchester United back to where they belong – in the EUROPA League

Back in the Europa League – how on earth did it come to this?

One point was all Manchester United needed to reach the last 16 of the Champions League – one point from two games – and yet they just couldn’t manage it.

As Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had said, their destiny was in their own hands but the performance they produced at the Red Bull Arena on Tuesday night suggested that the Europa League is where his side was always meant to end up.

True, United were placed in the Champions League’s ‘group of death’ but the Grim Reaper didn’t appear until that disastrous defeat in Istanbul in November.

Last week’s avoidable loss to Paris Saint-Germain left them clinging on for dear life, knowing that they needed to avoid defeat at RB Leipzig to survive, but it was Julian Nagelsmann’s players who put the final nail in United’s coffin.

“We started the game too slowly,” Maguire told BT Sport . “It wasn’t good enough for the first 20 minutes We weren’t at it and they scored the two chances they got. They put two balls into the box and we failed to deal with them.

“In the second half, they scored with their first attack, from another cross. So, we only have ourselves to blame.”

And he’s right. They were masters of their own downfall and now they’re back where they appear to belong, playing Europa League football on a Thursday night.