Juan Mata apologised to Manchester United
fans on Monday after the first red card of his
career proved costly in a 1-0 defeat at West
Brom on Sunday.
The Spaniard collected two yellow cards in just
158 seconds at the Hawthorns, as United were
left to play with only ten men for over an hour.
Mata was shown his first yellow for needlessly
blocking a Darren Fletcher free-kick, and was
sent off for a late tackle on the former United
midfielder.
Louis van Gaal's men are now three points
behind fourth-placed Manchester City in the
race for the Champions League, who also have a
game in hand.
Their best chance of qualifying for Europe's
premier competition now looks to be by winning
the Europa League.
They play Liverpool for the first time in Europe
in the last 16 of that competition on Thursday,
with Mata set to play as his ban only covers
domestic football.
"After almost 500 games as a professional
player, this Sunday I was sent off for the first
time in my career. As you can imagine, it's not
easy for me to write these lines," Spain
midfielder Mata wrote on his blog.
"The truth is this is a new and strange situation
for me, not easy to assimilate, but we learn from
everything. I know that, in football, we see
things like these every week, but obviously what
hurts more is that my team-mates had to fight
with 10 men for a long time.
"I have the feeling that both decisions were
rigorous; that, in many occasions, we see more
serious fouls that are not penalised in such a
way, but at the same time I could have avoided
them and I take responsibility.
"It also leaves me with a bad taste for the
supporters who travelled to the stadium, and
for those who were watching the game from
home, but I must carry on as always and from
now on I'm already focused on the next game,
the derby against Liverpool in the Europa
League."
No comments:
Post a Comment