ANTHONY Elanga came off the bench to earn Manchester United a 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie in Madrid on Wednesday night.
Joao Felix had given the hosts a well deserved lead with a diving header and they dominated a flat Manchester United side for most of the match.
United were so poor in attack that they failed to have a touch in the opposition box in the first half of a Champions League game for the first time since 2006.
Paul Pogba, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and Cristiano Ronaldo all struggled to create any meaningful chance until youngster Elanga came to the rescue late in the game.
Joao Felix fired Atletico into the lead after seven minutes, meeting Renan Lodi’s inviting cross with a brilliant diving header after getting between Raphael Varane and Harry Maguire.
The hosts also made it 2-0 before half-time, but Llorente headed against the crossbar from close range after their free-kick routine confused the visitors.
However, just five minutes after replacing Rashford, Elanga took advantage of Reinildo’s mistake to slip the ball beyond the poorly placed Jan Oblak, and United held on despite Antoine Griezmann hitting the bar late on.
Elanga’s equaliser was Manchester United’s 500th goal in the European Cup/Champions League, a tally bettered by only Real Madrid (1001), Bayern Munich (760) and Barcelona (624), according to Opta statistics, while Atletico have now gone seven home games without a win in the competition.
In the other Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday night, Benfica came from behind twice at home to hold Ajax to a 2-2 draw.
Dusan Tadic gave the Dutch side the lead but Cote d’Ivoire striker Sebastian Haller scored an own goal to draw Benfica level. Haller then made amends by giving Ajax the lead but substitute Roman Yaremchuck responded to earn the Portuguese side a draw.
The second legs of the ties will be played on 15 March in Manchester and Amsterdam.
