Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has expressed confidence that his side can still knock Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup.
In the first-leg semi-final played on Tuesday at Old Trafford, City ran out 3-1 winners, thanks to first half goals from Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and an own goal by Andreas Pereira.
Marcus Rashford gave United a slim hope ahead of the return leg at the Etihad when he scored in the second half to end the game 3-1.
Speaking after the game, Solskjaer stated that the tie is far from over.
“We’ve shown before when we’re down from a home tie and turned it around,” Solskjaer said in his post-match comments.
“Last year against PSG is the last example for us. We just have to believe when we go to the Etihad and hope we put a performance on.
“We created loads of chances there last time we went, we’ve done that time and time again as a club.”
He however lamented United’s first half struggles which saw them concede three goals.
He said: “Well, in the first half, until they scored, it was an even game I thought. But we didn’t cope with the setback of their goal well enough.
“We need to learn how to handle that better, batten down the hatches, make sure we stay in the game. Stay 1-0 down and let’s make sure we get to grips with it.
“We didn’t and you might say [we were] lucky to be only 3-0 down at half-time. We just didn’t recover from those goals until half-time, when we [the coaches] could get into their heads a little bit.”
And on the improvement made in the seocnd half, the Norwegian coach said: “We wanted to see their characters because that’s not good enough what we did in the first half. [At half-time it was a case of] let’s see who’s got the belief, who’s got the pride, who’s got the character to turn this around? I thought the second half was a great response. We cannot ask for a better response really than the second half and, with the crowd, we went for it. We created some chances and that was more like it. We won it 1-0 and that means we’re still in the tie in a sense.”
