Erik ten Hag praised Manchester United’s character after they fought again from a ‘stupid’ objective to finish their pre-season marketing campaign with a draw towards Athletic Bilbao.
Facundo Pellestri’s stoppage-time equalizer, arrange by Harry Maguire, secured a 1-1 draw towards 10-man Bilbao at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
However, for the second time in 48 hours, they needed to come from behind after Maguire’s mistake gave the LaLiga workforce a first-half lead.
Ten Hag stated on the membership’s official web site: “In one weekend we lose twice, but you can see that this team has character and you need that in a season.
‘Sometimes you are down and then you have to show resilience and it is precisely at such moments that you need determination. We showed this weekend that it was a good weekend for us.
Erik ten Hag praised Man United’s ‘resilience’ to secure a draw against Bilbao, but admitted his side conceded a ‘stupid’ opening goal
“Yesterday I thought it was a very good level, today I also saw very good spells.
“I think the start of the game was really good too and we should have scored a goal to go up because it was a great chance from Jadon Sancho.
“We also had some good moments afterwards and it was stupid how we went down, but like I said, we had a result and we came back, so it was a good weekend for us.”
Maguire, who was changed as United captain by Bruno Fernandes throughout a summer time crammed with hypothesis about his future, was included as certainly one of 11 modifications to the facet that beat Lens 3-1 at Old Trafford on Saturday, however there was no place for injured £72 million signing Rasmus Hojlund, a day after he was introduced to the membership’s followers.
Although Ten Hag’s males obtained off to an ideal begin when Pellistri Sancho performed behind the Athletic protection after 4 minutes, his try was blocked by goalkeeper Unai Simon.
Goalkeeper Tom Heaton was referred to as as much as declare Inaki Williams’ fifteenth minute strike when the Spaniards responded and thought they’d been given a twenty fifth minute penalty, seconds after United noticed their calls waved off on the different finish.
Harry Maguire was responsible of a foul when Oihan Sancet took benefit of his mistake
But United hit again when Facundo despatched residence Pellistri from a Wan-Bissake cross – and Ten Hag insisted his facet ‘don’t surrender’
Referee Neil Doyle initially pointed to the spot after Nico Williams was introduced down by Alvaro Fernandez, however the referee modified his thoughts and awarded a free kick, which Heaton dealt with comfortably.
However, the LaLiga facet took the lead within the twenty ninth minute when Oihan Sancet took benefit of Maguire’s misstep to feed Nico Williams, who shot previous the advancing goalkeeper.
Eighteen-year-old Dan Gore put Simon to the take a look at because the second half obtained below means with neither facet taking a step again.
But Bilbao’s hopes of retaining their benefit have been dented with 24 minutes left when final man Aitor Paredes was proven a straight pink card for bringing again Hannibal Mejbri after conceding possession to the Tunisian midfielder.
Hannibal handed up a wonderful probability to degree the rating when he volleyed the ball off Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross, however redemption got here deep into stoppage time when Maguire headed one other Wan-Bissaka supply for Pellistri to usher within the equalizer .
Ten Hag stated: ‘We will not be giving up. We combat to the tip. In the tip we obtained the equalizer and I believed it was proper.
“We wanted a good result to close the pre-season well.”