Man Utd's mind-blowing comeback somehow keeps the Amorim project alive (2025)

Man Utd 5-4 Lyon (7-6 on aggregate) (Ugarte 10′, Dalot 45+1, Fernandes pen 114′, Mainoo 120′, Maguire 120+1 | Tolisso 71′, Tagliafico 77′, Tolisso red card, Cherki 104′, Lacazette pen 109′)

OLD TRAFFORD — Even in the history of this football club, forged on dramatic late victories, this was something else.

Thousands had left. Another Manchester United self-sabotage of epic proportions was too much to take. Oh ye of little faith.

Andre Onana ran the perimeter of the pitch to celebrate like the madman he is. Diogo Dalot produced one of the longest knee slides ever seen on English soil. Ruben Amorim did not know where to look.

Goals in the 120th and 121st minutes to win 5-4 makes Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s 1999 winner seem like a mediocre act of heroism in comparison.

Amorim in fact kept his cool more than most as pandemonium ensued all around him. As his overriding feeling was not one of jubilation, with some younger supporters spotted in tears in the stands.

No, for Amorim, the relief was palpable. His entire project hinges a Champions League return next season and the riches on offer when seated at Europe’s top table.

Without such funds, he cannot complete the squad overhaul his team desperately needs. After 121 astonishing minutes against a bedazzled Lyon on Thursday night, that often forlorn-looking dream lives on.

“The sound of the last two goals were amazing, that is something we can keep for the future,” Amorim said.

“I think that’s why we like this sport so much and all the frustration that the coach has in this kind of season, the frustration, the bad moments, when you have moment like this it’s all worth it.

“This kind of moment can help a lot players in this season. They can create some connection with the fans and players, we forget for a few minutes what kind of season we’ve had.”

Despite the club’s cash-strapped attempt to get pulses racing with a pre-match pyrotechnics display that was more League One than Europa League, the atmosphere inside a desperate Old Trafford was electric all match. With their team firmly marooned on a bar stool in the last chance saloon, they had to bring the noise.

The decibels went up a notch or two after Manuel Ugarte finished off a fine, flowing United move 10 minutes in to give the team who have conceded first in 19 league games this season a rare feeling of being in front in the first half of a home match.

With Onana back in the side, nobody could completely relax. The United stopper is no shrinking violet, however, even with the pressure on him following two glaring errors in the first leg in Lyon, with the Cameroonian dancing in front of Lyon’s vocal traveling supporters as Manuel Ugarte’s finish hit the net, in response to their jibes over last week’s bizarre spat with Nemanja Matic.

HARRY MAGUIRE DOES IT AGAIN! 🚨

Man United have completed the comeback ✅

📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/mcNnClCikl

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 17, 2025

A nervy Old Trafford needed that pivotal second and Diogo Dalot delivered right on cue, just before the break, after showing great strength to hold off his marker and finish well.

Alejandro Garnacho really should have killed the game off early in the second half, doing all the hard work before firing too close to Lyon goalkeeper Lucas Perri, and as the minutes ticked on with only a two-goal cushion, the jitters reared their ugly heads.

In the blink of an eye, the match and the tie, was all square once more, with Old Trafford stunned into silence. A static backline could only look as Corentin Tolisso and Nicolas Tagliafico, a former Ajax team-mate of Onana’s, completely changed the complexion of the contest.

Tolisso’s late dismissal swung this thrilling tie back in United’s favour, but a winner in normal time was not forthcoming.

Weary legs aplenty, but hearts won the day. United were dead and buried after a super Rayan Cherki finish and a Alexandre Lacazette spot kick seemingly resigned Amorim and his exhausted team to their fate.

Fernandes kept his cool from the spot to give those weary souls still left inside Old Trafford hope, with a superb Kobbie Mainoo finish completing a rescue act nobody thought United had in them.

Harry Maguire’s slab did the rest – the latest winner in Europa League history. What a night. What an enigma wrapped in a mystery of a football club.