Svilar enjoyed 'special' United match despite own goal

Posted Wednesday, November 01, 2017 by

Despite more bad luck against Manchester United, teenager Mile Svilar was delighted to have featured in Benfica's game at Old Trafford.

Mile Svilar insists he enjoyed facing Manchester United on Tuesday despite another moment of misfortune helping the home side to a 2-0 Champions League win at Old Trafford.

The 18-year-old goalkeeper became the youngest player to score an own goal in the competition when Nemanja Matic's shot came off the post and rebounded off his back into the net.

The incident came just two weeks after Svilar carried a Marcus Rashford free-kick over the line to give United a 1-0 victory in Lisbon, after which he was consoled by striker Romelu Lukaku.

Belgian Svilar produced an otherwise excellent display against Jose Mourinho's side, though, making good saves from Lukaku and keeping out an Anthony Martial penalty before eventually being beaten for a second time by Daley Blind's spot-kick.

Despite his unlucky own goal, the former Anderlecht man says it was a match he will savour for some time.

"Mixed feelings, of course – a lot of emotions in twenty minutes but I think I couldn't do anything about it, it is luck," he said of the incident, as quoted by UEFA.com. "There was nothing I could do about it but it's still an own goal.

"I enjoyed it a lot, I tried to enjoy the whole game, at my age it's something special. Great fans, great Benfica fans, they were so good. But a pity we couldn't take the three points.

"We played really well, we had a lot of chances but an excellent [David] De Gea as well, so well done to him. As a team, we played really well and I hope we will continue like this in the league and the Champions League as well."

Benfica, who have lost all four of their Group A games, are now unable to qualify for the last 16 and must win both of their remaining matches to have any chance of claiming the Europa League spot.

Head coach Rui Vitoria was irritated at the manner in which they conceded given their otherwise decent performance.

"This result was a bit frustrating in terms of the way we conceded our goals," he said. "We were always conscious of what we needed to do in this game.

"We've won with other tactics but this time we opted to put more men in the central area in order to block United's game and create our chances, but we didn't score and they did. Congratulations to United on the win and we'll keep on with the good work."