Early Champions League Exit Not A 'Disaster,' Former Manchester United Star Backs Solskjaer

KEY POINTS

Manchester United suffered a 3-2 loss to RB Leipzig on Tuesday
Man Utd now will play in the Europa League
Phil Neville has said Man Utd's UCL exit is not a disaster

Former Manchester United star Phil Neville has backed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, saying the Red Devils' early Champions League exit is not a "disaster."

Manchester United failed to progress into the knockout stages of the 2020-21 Champions league after losing 3-2 to RB Leipzig on Tuesday. Out of the six Group H matches, Solskjaer's side lost three and won as many. They finished in third place and was dropped into the Europa League.

Neville, who won the treble with Manchester United in the 1998-99 season, defended Manchester United and the club manager, saying the team was demoted to Europa League after crashing out of the premier European tournament in the past as well and it didn't attract any alarming concerns.

"There's an awful narrative where the minute United lose a game it seems like a disaster. It's not a disaster tonight, but it's disappointing. United wanted to be in the last 16," Neville, who formed part of the club's famous class of '92, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"There are Manchester United teams in the past with better managers than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - like Sir Alex Ferguson - which have gone out at this stage. It does happen, it has happened. It's quite a freakish time at the moment. There are managers in the Premier League who are below United in the league but have great reputations and don't get the stick Solskjaer gets," Neville added.

After spending 11 years at the Old Trafford, the 43-year-old moved to Everton, where the defender-turned-midfielder had ended his playing career in 2013.

"If United win on Saturday - and Ole's teams tend to do well in big moments, I think Saturday is a big moment for the manager and for the players. They played poorly in the first 30 minutes, they got punished in a group which was really, really difficult and they're out of the competition. They're now in the Europa League, they've got to go out and win that. The narrative from inside the club is far, far different to that outside the club, where it seems there's a total witch-hunt to get this boy out of the job," added Neville in the same interview.