Manchester United’s hopes of being involved in the main draw of the Women’s Champions League for the first time are hanging in the balance after a disappointing first-leg loss in Norway in the third qualifying round.
Poor defending at a Brann free-kick allowed Ingrid Stenevik to head home with 14 minutes remaining. The second leg is at Leigh Sports Village next Thursday.
United must overturn that deficit if they are to join Chelsea and the holders, Arsenal, in the new league phase of the competition that starts next month.
“We were the better team, but we didn’t win the game,” their manager, Marc Skinner, told MUTV. “We lost on a set-piece, which is something we’ve just got to be more aggressive in the box to attack.
“But it’s half-time. Brann are now celebrating like they’ve won the tie, so let’s see when they come back to Leigh. We were the better team, but we need to be more clinical and of course we need to defend that one situation a lot, lot better.”
The defeat capped off an already strange trip for United, who were left scrambling after some of the players’ boots went missing in transit. The whereabouts of the missing boots – first reported by Reuters – are understood to remain a mystery, but the club managed to quickly source replacements in time.
A Manchester United source said: “A bag containing some of our players’ boots went missing during the journey to Bergen. We are investigating how this happened. In the meantime, we have secured new boots for all the affected players, and they are ready to participate as normal.”
Even if that rather curious incident had not made the following gag rather tempting, it would already have been fair to assess this match by stating that United had left their shooting boots at home. They created chance after chance, but could not find a way past an inspired Selma Panengstuen in the Brann goal. Quite how United did not score at least two or three goals will surely be beyond them.
The early stages of the first half included Elisabeth Terland heading wide from an Anna Sandberg cross and a Terland shot deflected off target, before United started to go close.
After a good run from Jess Park, their deadline-day signing from Manchester City, a lively Ella Toone had a deflected shot superbly saved. Terland headed over from a testing Toone cross and the England midfielder then went close herself.
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Brann were backed by a record crowd for a women’s fixture in Norway of 16,019 and they were on their feet when Panengstuen saved well again, this time from Dominique Janssen, in the second half, after strong work down the left from Melvine Malard.
Against the run of play, Brann then punished United when Signe Gaupset’s inswinging, left-wing free-kick was met in the middle by Stenevik, who got between Lisa Naalsund and Terland to head past Phallon Tullis-Joyce.
It was a rare attack from the home side and the first goal United have conceded in their four games in all competitions this season, after three previous wins out of three. They eliminated PSV and Hammarby in the previous phase of the qualifying process, during a mini‑tournament in Stockholm.
Brann are managed by the former Crystal Palace coach Leif Smerud, who replaced the new Tottenham head coach, Martin Ho – formerly of United’s backroom team – when Ho left Brann this summer. Smerud His new team are four points clear at the top of the Toppserien, the highest division in Norway.
They were quarter-finalists two seasons ago, but this victory is one of their finest achievements in continental football. For United, it was an exasperating night that leaves them with work to do next week.
