Perhaps it would be wrong, after everything that has happened over the past few days, to describe it as a happy ending to José Mourinho’s first season at Manchester United. Yet there can be no doubt they will cherish these memories given what it means to the club: another trophy, a place in the Champions League and, more than anything, the opportunity to dedicate their latest prize to the people of the city.
It has been a harrowing week but as Mourinho had stated, United had a job to do and they went about it with all the qualities that would usually be associated with one of his teams. They reckon this match will earn United a minimum £50m, but what price can possibly be put on returning to Manchester with another reminder about why football is such an important part of what makes the place tick?
This was United’s 64th game of the season and it culminated with Wayne Rooney coming on as a late substitute so he was in place to lift the trophy that Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had secured with a goal in each half. Rooney did not even have time to get a scuff of grass on his kit but if this was his goodbye it was some way to go and, soon afterwards, Mourinho could be seen on one of his victory runs across the pitch.
The basic facts are that United had to win to warrant an invitation into next season’s Champions League and spare Mourinho a debate he probably could not have won about whether his first year in the job had turned out to be a crashing disappointment.
Yet there was far more to this occasion than just the sporting context. Manchester will not be healed by the loud, defiant songs and, yes, it was supposed to be a minute’s silence before the match rather than another opportunity to turn the volume high. In its own small way, however, there was still something deeply moving, uplifting even, about those chants, over and again, in honour of the city.
Many of those people might not come from Manchester – a few, indeed, might never have even been there – but football has brought them close to the city and the noise went up again after that moment, 18 minutes in, when Juan Mata moved to the ball from right to left, Marouane Fellaini did the same and Pogba decided to try his fortune with the left foot.
His luck was in. Pogba’s shot was on target but it ought to have been a straightforward save for the Ajax goalkeeper, Andre Onana, had the ball not taken such a decisive deflection off Davinson Sánchez, the nearest defender. Onana was already moving to his left, shaping to gather a low, skimming shot, when the direction of the ball changed completely and turned back towards the centre of the goal. His right glove jutted out but it was too late and Pogba was wheeling away in jubilation, taking in his most important – and luckiest – goal since rejoining United last summer.
The strange part was that Mourinho was so impassive, sitting back in his dugout, legs crossed, wearing the stern expression of a man who had just seen the opposition take the lead in a European final. Yet the game was still in its early stages and there was plenty of evidence that Ajax could endanger their opponents.
Hakim Ziyech could be seen nutmegging Mkhitaryan and one run from Bertrand Traoré saw him slalom past three United players. As the first half wore on, it was the team from Amsterdam who were playing the more creative and fluent game.
Peter Bosz had fielded a starting line-up with an average age of 22 years and 282 days, including six players of 21 and under, and trusted a 17-year-old, Matthijs de Ligt, in the centre of his defence. For that alone there is plenty to admire about this Ajax side but perhaps it was just inevitable that United had the edge in big-match experience.
Kasper Dolberg, Ajax’s 19-year-old striker, barely lasted an hour before being substituted and United’s second goal, three minutes after the interval, came at a good time.
This time it originated from Mata’s corner. Fellaini jumped at thin air but Chris Smalling was behind him to head the ball down. Mkhitaryan had the right-back, Joël Veltman, in close proximity but flicked out his right foot to hook a clever, improvisational shot into the corner.
Fellaini was deployed in the No10 role, which might look an awkward fit, but the fact he was such a difficult opponent might actually have been part of the reason why it worked. Mourinho had selected Mata ahead of Jesse Lingard, explaining that he wanted to use the Spaniard’s experience, and it summed up United’s performance that Marcus Rashford could be seen chasing after opponents inside his own half.
Granted, this team do not play the free-flowing football of previous United sides, but these are not the nights to dwell too long on those kind of details. Mourinho has now won 12 of his 14 finals and never lost one in 90 minutes. United’s position in the Premier League, 24 points off the top, might raises legitimate questions but two trophies in one season is more than some of their rivals have managed in the past decade.
This was the only trophy United have never won and at the end the hordes of supporters made their feelings clear. “Manchester, Manchester, Manchester,” they sang.
Guardian