Has United finally found their man for the big occasions? Schmeichel reveals the secret behind the historic comeback
Deep sorrow then an explosion of joy
Peter Schmeichel has singled out one of Manchester United's stars for praise after he "changed the course of the match" against Roma, inspiring a precious 3-2 win from two goals down.
The former United goalkeeper admits he felt "very sad" in the first half. Everything turned, he reckons, the moment summer signing Youri Tielemans stepped onto the pitch.
Tielemans replaced the injured Cameroonian Carlos Baleba shortly after the restart. The Belgian midfielder then set about "changing the course of the match", as Schmeichel put it.
Metro carried Schmeichel's words to CBS Sports: "It was about time we did something like this. Manchester United have done this kind of thing time and again in the past, but it took a long time."
Tielemans changed the course of the match
He continued: "In the first half, I felt deeply saddened by what I saw in the first 45 minutes, as the situation was very bad. Then Carlos Baleba went off injured at the start of the second half, so I said to myself: things cannot get any worse than this."
"But Youri Tielemans came onto the pitch and changed the course of the match," he went on. "This is the best performance I have seen him produce with Manchester United, and I am very happy for him. He came into midfield and drove the team forward and was a leader, it was wonderful to see him."
"For me, this could be a major turning point," he added. "The players have now felt what it means to be at Manchester United and to play on these big European nights."
The spark of the great transformation: "If you are going to lose, then fight until the end"
The United legend added: "Coming back from two goals down, this is what United have done for years. I am extremely happy for Michael Carrick because he badly needed this win." Schmeichel's son Kasper, the former Leicester City goalkeeper, also had praise for Tielemans after the superb comeback at Old Trafford.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I said in the first half that if you are going to lose, fight until the end. You can accept a defeat if you have given everything you have, and they did not do that in the first half."
Schmeichel stressed: "But they did it in the second half. Carlos Baleba set the tone for the play. It was unfortunate that he got injured because of it, but that was like a spark. Youri Tielemans came onto the pitch, and that changed the course of the match a little. There was a greater degree of control."
He went on: "When you play in these matches and you are two goals down, you have already lost, so you had better give it your best. You had better run and play."
"This is the standard"
The historic goalkeeper continued: "This should be the standard, and the great thing about it for Michael Carrick is that he now has something to refer back to. Any time there is a difficult situation or a team talk before the match, it will be like: look what you do when you give your all in this way, then it becomes impossible to live with you."
That comeback win lifted Manchester United to seventeenth in the Champions League after four matches. Roma slipped to nineteenth.
Carrick's side return to action on Sunday against Aston Villa. Roma, third in Serie A, host Sassuolo.
