Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me twice with a near-carbon copy pass in-behind to Bayern Munich Women’s top goalscorer, this season’s second-top scorer in the Champions League…? 

For a long period in United’s 2-3 quarter-final first-leg defeat to Bayern Munich, Manchester United seemed capable of defying the inevitable answer. Twice, they rallied, centre-back Maya Le Tissier’s converted penalty restoring parity after Bayern striker Pernille Harder’s opening goal after 98 seconds, and full-back Hanna Lundkvist heading home a second equaliser five minutes after Harder restored Bayern Munich’s lead in the 71st minute with another ball in behind United’s backline. 

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But once is hard, twice is Harder and third is Japan forward Momoko Tanikawa with a third sneaking into goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce’s far corner because Jess Park wasn’t looking over her shoulder and Ziggioti Olme was too late to clock her run into the box. So Bayern return home with a goal-advantage and the away fans are singing “football’s coming home” in Old Trafford’s away section.

How you square this depends on your United orientation.  

This was not a tactical masterclass, but it was not a disaster-class either. United looked best when they relied on short passing and tight connections, as was the case when Leah Schuller won United’s penalty following a short, sharp sequence between Park and Hinata Miyazawa. A few times United used Bayern’s shape to regain possession. Once Melvine Malard put Bayern’s defence on their backside after United realised Miyazawa couldn’t be the only outlet for attack. 

Yet, multiple times United’s defensive line was pulled apart because Harder ran one way, then another. The fullbacks kept forgetting space is left when they vacate it. Of United’s 46% possession, they registered 15 touches in Bayern’s box compared to Bayern’s 24 in theirs. For the third successive match, the final third became a Bermuda Triangle for decision-making. At full-time, Bayern head coach Jose Barcala described United’s possession as a time that his side didn’t “suffer”. “We were still comfortable in the uncomfortable,” he said. 

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Twice, though, United recovered. Despite defensive naivety. Despite Harder. That resilience – not least after 98 seconds – deserves lauding. 

But here is where your orientation of United is required: Whether you see United as an ongoing rendering of resilience, an underdog in a new ecosystem keeping the heartbeat of a precarious tie still very much beating.

Or Manchester United, the Gary Neville-voiced version. The version that doesn’t win just one of seven matches against their top four Women’s Super League (WSL) rivals in all competitions this season (three of 16 if stretched to last). The version that should not keep finding itself on the wrong side of the Big Game Margins.

Champions League quarter-finals are all about margins and in them Bayern were simply more. More robust, more physical, more savvy, more secure. Bayern have graced this stage before. Eight times in fact, seven more times than United for those counting. At which point the time arrives to mention the default qualifier: That the last time there was a Champions League quarter-final at Old Trafford (the men’s tie against Barcelona in April 2019), United Women were in their first season of existence since their 2005 disbandment, rampaging through England’s second-tier. Bayern Munich were in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Harder was scoring 31 goals for Wolfsburg, reaching a Champions League quarter-final and winning the Fraun-Bundesliga.

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And yet, there comes the gnawing. Because it’s difficult to keep making excuses. To keep reminding oneself of the distance travelled when, in the quiet spaces between, lurks the inkling that perhaps even greater lengths might have been travelled if there’d been just a little more investment, a little more care, a little more time to be on this stage and not forget that Harder — a two-time UEFA Player of the Year and 2019-20 Champions League Forward of the Season — is good at running in behind and making you bleed. Just a little more more from the people capable of providing it. 

Instead, for successive seasons, United are staring down a defining juncture with a squad at breaking point. Defender Dominique Janssen and January signing Ellen Wangerheim joined full-back Anna Sandberg, forward Leah Galton and midfielder Ella Toone on the sidelines this week. So winger Fridolina Rolfo is playing left-back. Lisa Naalsund is trying to cover midfield. Miyazawa, who returned to Manchester after lifting the Asia Cup with Japan in Australia (a 24-hour flight and an 11-hour time difference) on Tuesday, is waltzing back into the starting XI the next day. Striker Elisabeth Terland, the only real attacking option on United’s bench, is unavailable because she’s exhausted and league leaders City await on Saturday in a match that could see United’s one-point lead over third-place Chelsea in the WSL table wiped out.  

All of which beckons memories of the final weeks of last season, when United – still in the running for a second-place finish in the league and an FA Cup trophy – failed to win any of their last five matches and slipped to third in the league, starting with a goalless league draw away to West Ham before unravelling into 0-1 to Chelsea, 2-2 against City and 3-4 to Arsenal in the league and 0-3 to Chelsea at Wembley. 

“The second leg will take us to the depths,” said United head coach Marc Skinner in Wednesday’s post-match press conference. “But if there’s anything I know about this team, it’s that that’s almost where we’ve had to live this year.”

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There are congratulations in order for making it this far. A first-ever quarter-final in a debut European season. A tie that is still very much alive against one of Europe’s best. Still second in the WSL. But what is the plan to ensure United make it here next season? And further after that? Or, maybe, just to not have the team living in those depths perennially? 

“I love this team, but we also are progressing at a speed where we’ve got to keep catching teams that have already had many years on us,” said Skinner. “I honestly think we aren’t too far away. I know the plan. We’ve talked about it internally. We have to recruit the right players to make sure we have the depth in these areas to go toe-toe with the best in Europe.

“City, Chelsea, Arsenal won’t stop. So if you pause for a second, you lose ground. We know that’s the way forward is to recruit better players for more experience. It’s the experience they get you over the line.”

The next two matches will be critical in doing so.  

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Manchester United, Women’s Soccer

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