Garnacho's devious move and Ten Hag's reaction as Man Utd secured crucial win
Alejandro Garnacho did all he could to aid Andre Onana's penalty saving efforts as Manchester United secured three points for the first time in this season's Champions League.
Copenhagen had the chance to thwart them late on at Old Trafford when they were awarded a spot kick four minutes into injury time. The Dane's would've left Old Trafford with a point had Onana not produced a big save late on, but that was only after Garnacho made every effort to scuff up the penalty spot.
Whilst the players remonstrated with the referee the young Argentina wandered up to the spot and repeatedly dug his boots into the ground, attempting to make Jordan Larsson's job that much harder - and so it proved.
It meant that Harry Maguire's second-half header would end up being the match winner with Onana the late hero. Both men have copped flack this season but came up trumps in Manchester as the team put defeats to Bayern Munich and Galatasaray behind them.
Erik ten Hag opted to spent just shy of £50m to land Onana's signature in the summer, moving David de Gea on in the process but the Cameroon international has made several notable errors, calling the transfer into question. The Dutchman though has stuck by his new signing and he repaid that faith on Tuesday night.
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He said: "I know how good he is and the skills he has. At United, you have to show it every game, having the right focus and mindset. If he has that, he will perform. I think it's very important for him. Of course, he had some criticism but now he saves the points for the lads, it was a brilliant save just after half-time also.
"You can see this team is growing, we have a lot of setbacks as a team but, in the dressing room, we deal with it and, slowly, we are coming forward."
United will play Copenhagen in the Danish capital next up before a clash with Bayern and a daunting trip to Turkey. Ten Hag has made it clear that his side need at least six points if they are to make the knockout stages of the Champions League - something they've done just once in the past four seasons.
"We have to go from game to game," he said. "Today, we have seen there are no easy games. Copenhagen were playing well, organised. The next game is against them so, if you don't play your levels, you don't go far against them. If you want come through, you have to collect points. We need at least two wins more and, the next game, we have another opportunity."
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