3 things we learned as Manchester United got eliminated from Champions League

Manchester United had to win this match if they wanted to stay in the Champions League. A loss to Wolfsburg would see PSV Eindhoven knock Manchester to the Europa League with just a draw. Even a draw for Manchester wouldn’t be enough, because a win for PSV would still see them pass the English team in the standings. Instead of winning, though, Manchester’s defense broke down in several key moments, dooming them to a 3-2 loss to a high-flying Wolfsburg attack, and a win for PSV saw Manchester eliminated from the Champions League entirely.

The match got off to an absolutely flying start, with Wolfsburg pushing up high and hard to thwart Manchester United’s attempts to catch them off-balance in the early minutes. Unfortunately, the Germans missed their best chance to score in the first ten minutes, and not long after saw Manchester United take the lead thanks to some aggressive ball movement and a sumptuous throughball from Juan Mata to Anthony Martial.

Manchester’s celebrations were short-lived, however, as just three minutes later Wolfsburg found their equalizer, with Naldo sweeping in a gorgeously-placed corner from Ricardo Rodriguez. That set off a long spell of play that saw Wolfsburg as the dominant side, with Manchester defending desperately and spinning around trying to figure out how Wolfsburg were going to come at them next.

The English team did well for awhile to keep Wolfsburg at bay, but they couldn’t do it forever. The dam finally burst in the 29th minute, when Julian Draxler went on a slaloming run through Manchester’s defense, moving the ball around in give-and-gos to keep Manchester’s defense scrambling. That opened up a lane for Vierinha to run through, and one last little slip-through pass was all Draxler needed to set him up to give Wolfsburg a lead.

Manchester fans thought their team had found an equalizer late in the half, but found controversy instead. A well-struck shot from Jese Lingard buzzed past Juan Mata, who acted like he was looking to shoot the ball. That faked out Diego Benaglio, and when the ball rolled by Mata, Wolfsburg’s goalkeeper couldn’t get over to it in time. Then, after a long delay for a chat between the referee and his assistant, the offside flag was raised on Mata -- who was indeed well off when Lingard took his shot, and who’s involvement interfered in Benaglio being able to make the save.

The second half grew increasingly desperate, as Wolfsburg chased a clinching third goal and Manchester did everything they could to find an equalizer. We saw some pretty special goalkeeping at both ends, with Benaglio getting a few excellent saves, including one on a point-blank-range volley from Memphis Depay. David De Gea, though, put on a clinic in “desperation reaction saves” goalkeeping, including a jaw-dropping, high-flying save of a long lob that had appeared to catch him too far away from goal.

Then the whole match was almost turned on its heat, when a desperation sequence from Manchester paid off when Marouane Fellaini sent in a shot that Joshua Guilavogui tried to head over his own goal -- but the midfielder didn’t get enough power on this header, and it looped in under the bar for an own goal. With PSV drawing with CSKA at that point in the match, that would have been enough to send Manchester through to the Champions League knockout rounds.

Then disaster struck, again. Once again on a corner, Naldo found space and hammered home his shot to restore Wolfsburg’s lead -- and worse, PSV scored again right after that to take the lead over CSKA. The bells of doom were tolling for Manchester United’s Champions League dreams.

Manchester kept trying to score, even putting defender Chris Smalling up top to take advantage of long balls from their midfield. But there wasn’t enough time to get the two goals Manchester United needed for a miracle, and so it was that Manchester United were eliminated from the Champions League and doomed to the Europa League, while Wolfsburg celebrated with their home fans.

Goals: Martial (10’), Guilavogui OG (82’)

Goals: Naldo (13’, 84’), Vierinha (29’)

Manchester United had a goal ruled out for offside late in the first half when the offside player, Juan Mata, never even touched the ball. How could this be, you ask? There’s been new rules put into effect that emphasize calling offside for non-touching players getting involved and “interfering” in the play, and that’s exactly what happened here.

Mata was well offside when the shot was struck, and he knew it. He continued his run to the path of the ball, though, and got close enough that Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio -- who doesn’t have as good a view of who’s offside or not -- had to wait to make his dive depending on whether or not Mata took a shot. Mata let the ball run through, and because of his reaction being delayed, Benaglio couldn’t get to the shot.

That’s interference, but in preview years it wouldn’t have lead to the goal being disallowed. This time it was, and very rightfully so. When the new adjustments to the rules were announced, they were met with confusion and skepticism, but when you see them used like this, you can see exactly why. Mata’s action as an ineligible player created an unfair advantage for Manchester, and the referees made sure they weren’t rewarded.

Just look at Wolfsburg’s second goal. Look at it. That mazy run by Draxler, the interchange between attackers, the clever use of the passes to change the direction of Manchester’s attention while Vierinha slips behind where they’re looking. That’s just not fair. It’s not nice. Sure, Manchester United’s defense was made of bailing twine and dreams for this match thanks to injuries, but there aren’t many defenses in Europe who are stopping that move.

That’s the kind of thing that Wolfsburg are well capable of, and it’s frightening to see them pull it off. We haven’t seen much of that form from them this season, but last year they ran rampant over most of the Bundesliga by doing things like that. If this is a sign that they’re getting back to their best form, Europe should be on notice.

Yes, they’re fairly hard-hit by injuries, but looking at who Manchester had to play today is just silly. Guillermo Varela? Nick Powell? Teenager Cameron Borthwick-Jackson? Really? These are your solutions, Manchester? Both this January and next summer, Manchester United need to put some emphasis on making sure that their depth is much better sorted out than it has been so far this season. Maybe relying on so many injury-prone players wasn’t such a hot idea.