We don’t know how much Brian Cristante’s foot touching the Roma penalty area will mean to Michael Carrick as Bruno Fernandes takes his first strike at Old Trafford.
At this point, with Roma fans celebrating and Manchester United trailing 2-0, it looked disastrous for the club and terminal for Carrick’s tenure as manager.
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But video assistant referee (VAR) Carlos del Cerro Grande stepped in, advised a replay was needed – and at least changed the course of the night.
Fernandes held his nerve to head home his second effort and then, in a frenzied atmosphere, Matheus Cunha scored twice in the last seven minutes. Even without the context of everything that happened before the game, it was the most improbable of comebacks.
Not even Cunha’s dismissal after a short spell ensured a nervy finish, bringing some respite after a torrid few weeks, his first win in 10.
How did Carrick feel when he saved the penalty? What did legendary United figures covering the game for Amazon Prime say at half-time in response to a dismal first-half display that drew condemnation from Wayne Rooney and Nicky Butt?
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There was even a sense of deja vu at that moment.
“I knew at half-time against Watford,” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer recalled when he was sacked as United manager a few years ago in September 2023. I told the players at halftime that this would probably be the last time we work together.
United scored twice at half-time that day at Vicarage Road. Carrick was on the bench as one of Solskjaer’s coaches. They lost 4-1.
Not this time.
Despite the bleak situation, Carrick clearly has a more positive mindset.
“At half-time I wanted them to be more positive and not get too down and disappointed,” Carrick said.
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“The easiest thing to do is to feel sorry for yourself when you’re trying to do something. If something goes wrong, you’re disappointed. It’s not going to help anyone. If that happens, we can all go home. We have to keep looking for the next moment, the next solution.
“I don’t like to talk to kids about what this place can do, the history and a lot of things in the past, but it’s there.
“This place does magic, it has done it before and it will do it again sometime in the future. There’s just something about this place that we do the hard way when we have nights like this.
“But one moment can turn the whole place. I talked to the guys about it. Let’s have a moment to trigger it. And that’s what we had.”
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Rooney, who almost begged United’s players to “show some passion and desire” after a “nothing” first half, could only praise Carrick in the end.
“I think Michael Carrick deserves a lot of credit,” Rooney said, “because if you were him, how would I change it?
“Whatever he said to the team at half-time, it put them on the front foot and gave them the belief that they could win the game.”
Even when Fernandes missed the first penalty, Carrick refused to be humiliated.
“I didn’t laugh, I didn’t smile, I wasn’t happy about it,” he said. “But it almost felt like ‘there’s another moment.’
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“But at the same time, I was pretty calm because I felt the boys were somewhere coming out of the dressing room that something might happen.
“I have to say for Bruno to take that penalty twice – to have the mentality and finish like that – he deserves a lot of credit.”
A big comeback – but what happens now?
While United’s victory was certainly welcome, it will not hide the wider issues.
Green and gold protests against the ownership took place before kick-off and in the first half, when the home team was in shambles.
As exciting as the chants against the Glazer family, minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and director of football Jason Wilcox are, they won’t stop because of this win alone.
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A sober assessment should remember that United came from behind to beat Atalanta 3-2 at Old Trafford under Solskjaer. Four days later they lost 5-0 at home to Liverpool. Within a month, the Norwegian was fired.
In October 2018, Jose Mourinho was on the verge of being sacked ahead of a Premier League game against Newcastle. United were 2-0 down after 10 minutes but fought back to win. Mourinho played 13 more games.
No one knows how much time Carrick bought himself with this win.
“I don’t have a crystal ball to know what’s next,” he told Amazon Prime. “We’re heading into the weekend. We’ve got a really important game here against Aston Villa that we’ve got to get ready for.”
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Chief executive Omar Berrada and Wilcox certainly looked happier at the final whistle than they did midway through the first half.
Suddenly, United look like they could qualify for the next round of the Champions League. For the first time since September, Carrick’s players have the feeling of winning.
But it will mean little if they fail to keep up the momentum against Villa, who were badly beaten by Barcelona as Old Trafford is in disarray.
When asked if he could sleep any better thanks to the win, Carrick was honest enough to admit that he wouldn’t be.
“Not really. I’m not. Not really,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, normal or not, but I didn’t feel comfortable. It’s more that I’m really satisfied with the players.
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“I know how much they care, I know what they give. Sometimes it seems like that, sometimes not, sometimes we play well, sometimes we don’t and I understand that.
“But I could feel that they were ready to do well, and so they have to really dig deep and see that they have the feeling that we all want, so we’re all here.”
‘Perfect night’ or just ‘paper over the cracks’?
While pundits were unhappy with United’s first-half performance, there was plenty of praise for their second-half revival.
Former Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel said, “I said at halftime if you’re going to go down, fight. If you’ve given everything, you can accept losing.” “They didn’t do it in the first half, but they did in the second half.
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“Things are looking a little bit better. Don’t get me wrong, the second half is exposing the cracks in the first half, so now it’s a matter of using that as a benchmark and talking more now.
“You have to put your differences aside because now you can’t change your players, so everyone has to be on the same page. Everyone has to be on the same page right now.”
Getting on the same page seemed difficult for Carrick and his players. Lisandro Martinez and Fernandes have publicly criticized targets in recent weeks, from the club’s hierarchy to the manager’s tactics.
Former England defender Stephen Warnock says the story behind the win over Roma was “absolutely perfect” for Carrick.
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“What happened, Manchester United came in, a weak team, a team with no confidence, lost 2-0 – what was the reaction now?
“Now we’ve seen the reaction, so we know it’s there. The team is fighting for the manager and they’re fighting to change the result. You have to fight and show something. When you fight and start running for each other, you have more confidence in each other and you start believing you can do something.
“The Old Trafford fans and this crowd will take it up a notch as soon as the first goal goes in in the second half and help the team believe they can get something out of it.
“It’s a perfect night for Michael Carrick.”
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