Champions league: Manchester united held to a draw against Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid played without their captain ‘Koke’

Atletico Madrid captain Koke missed the Champions League last-16 first leg against Manchester United after the club said that he has a thigh injury.

Koke’s absence was a huge blow for the Spanish side as they held a draw against ‘The Red Devils’.

It was the early strike from Felix which gave the home side (Atletico Madrid) the lead but the English side equalised in the final 10- minutes of the match.

The Red Devils will certainly be counting themselves lucky after Anthony Elanga once again made a telling difference from the bench.

He netted an 80th-minute equaliser for the visitors after Joao Felix had given Atletico a deserved lead inside seven minutes.

The young Portuguese forward got his side off to the perfect start after heading Renan Lodi’s perfect cross beyond David de Gea, but they were unable to build on the early lead.   

Manchester United now has the away goal advantage in the round of 16 against Atletico Madrid.

However, Rangrick was not very happy with the performance of his team.

 "After the performance in the first half, it could only get better," he told BT Sport. "I still cannot believe what we did in the first half, we played without conviction, without aggression against the ball and that's why we were really struggling.

"Second half, we were better, we had more possession in areas that mattered and if we'd played for another 10 minutes, we might have even won the game. Again, we just have to play better in the first half; I was very disappointed with our performance in the first half."

Manchester United will host Atletico Madrid on 16^th March 2022.