On The Ball | Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wants Uefa Europa League loss to act as ‘springboard’
- ‘The performance wasn’t good enough to win the game,’ Norwegian says after penalty shoot-out loss to Villareal
- Work to be done by Old Trafford boss for team to challenge for titles but he’s already back at it after bad night in Gdansk
The pickup vans worked their way through Gdansk’s beautiful city centre on Thursday night, stopping to collect branded Manchester United, Villarreal and Uefa signage for the 2021 Europa League final.
There were giant pictures of each finalist to pack away while the United and Villarreal flags which flew from the front of every bus, tram and lamp post were replaced with the flags of Poland and Gdansk.
As the city where the first shots of the Second World War were fired and where the Solidarity movement brought profound social change in Eastern Europe, Gdansk has enough history of its own. The word will be celebrated in Villarreal, just as Rome, Berlin, Paris and London are at Barcelona’s Camp Nou, with lounges in their names.
In United’s history, Gdansk will forever be associated with failure. Rotterdam, another vast port, is celebrated because it was where United won their second European trophy in 1991, but Wednesday’s defeat after 21 spectacular penalties became the third defeat in United’s eight European finals.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was deeply disappointed when I spoke to him after the game as Villarreal’s players celebrated behind him. He needed that first trophy.
