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Man Utd: Players insist they’re ‘fighting’ for Carrick after stunning Roma turnaround – ‘That’s how we repay him’
Man Utd boss Michael Carrick after Roma win
Man Utd boss Michael Carrick after Roma win

Manchester United midfielder Youri Tielemans insists that the incredible comeback win over Roma showed that the players are still “fighting” to keep Michael Carrick in a job, in what was a “perfect night” for the under-pressure Old Trafford chief.

The Red Devils dragged themselves up off the canvas to end their nine-match winless run with a stunning 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Italian outfit in the Champions League.

United looked dead and buried and Carrick heading for the exit door as Roma stormed into a 2-0 lead inside 17 minutes courtesy of strikes from Matias Soule and a Donyell Malan penalty.

The atmosphere had turned toxic, with green tennis balls thrown onto the pitch as a further sign of protest against the club’s ownership.

Green and gold balloons were also released as the teams came out and songs were chanted against the Glazer family, minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and director of football Jason Wilcox.

However, after £70m summer signing Carlos Baleba had limped off with a hamstring injury, skipper Bruno Fernandes sparked some hope when he converted a twice-taken penalty.

Matheus Cunha then capitalised on Leonardo Balerdi’s error to equalise, before the Brazilian drilled home a shot from an acute angle four minutes from time.

However, Cunha was sent off as the game entered stoppage time after picking up two quickfire bookings, the first of which was for taking his shirt off when celebrating what turned out to be the winner.

Speaking after the contest, BBC Sport pundit Stephen Warnock insisted that the comeback showed the players are still fighting for Carrick.

He said: “I think the narrative for Michael Carrick is absolutely perfect because what’s happened is Manchester United have gone in, a vulnerable team, a team lacking in confidence, they’ve gone 2-0 down – now what’s the reaction?

“Now we’ve just seen the reaction, so we know it’s in there. The team are fighting for the manager and they’re fighting to turn results around.

“You’ve got to fight and show something. When you show fight and start to run for each other, you get more confident in each other and you start to believe that you can do something.

“The Old Trafford fans and that crowd will have turned it up a notch in the second half as soon as that first goal went in and help the team believe that they could get something out of it.

“It’s a perfect night for Michael Carrick.”

Man Utd players fully behind Carrick

Tielemans, meanwhile, insisted the fightback proved that the players are fully behind Carrick.

He told Amazon Prime: “There has been a lot of pressure on him and that’s how we repay him, with a comeback like this, big character, big fight.”

On whether this result has saved Carrick’s job: “That’s a different question. The only thing we can do is stick behind him, fight for him and fight for the club.

“At the end of the day we are on the pitch and we need to show what we are capable of and tonight, especially in the second half, we showed what we can do and we turned up the gears.

“Let’s hope this is a good turnaround for us and let’s hope we can build on this.”

As for what has changed after a first win in 10 games in all competitions, Tielemans added: “We just kept working, we kept believing.

“We were on the front foot in the second half, we tried to push them into their goal and we succeeded.”

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