Manchester United were ‘unprofessional’ as they suffered a surprise late 1-0 defeat at the hands of Basle in the Champions League, according to Rio Ferdinand.
United needed only a draw to guarantee top spot in Group A, however Michael Lang’s winner means they must get another point at home to CSKA Moscow in the final fixture.
Former United captain Ferdinand was scathing of their second half performance, in which the visitors went deeper until being stung in the 89th minute.
Speaking on BT Sport, Ferdinand said: ‘No one likes losing games, and the manner in which they lost will hurt as well.
They are going to qualify, but when you have had a first half like that, as convincing in terms of the number of chances they should have dispatched, to come out in the second half and allow your emotions to take over and become so open.
‘It was like basketball, an end to end game, it was not professional on Manchester United’s part at all.’
Frank Lampard was equally unimpressed, especially as United dominated the first half, hitting the woodwork twice.
Instead United became the fourth English team to suffer Champions League defeat at St Jakob-Park in five visits by Premier League sides to the Swiss club.
Lampard said: ‘They gave Basle confidence to get back in the game. It wasn’t so much end to end in the second half, United didn’t trouble Basle at all.
‘Basle deserved to win the game, this was a bad performance by Manchester United. United will go through, and there will be much better performances than we saw in the second half, it was certainly a bad 45 minutes.’
COMMENTS