Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Laments Lack Of Experience In Manchester United's Loss To Sevilla

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rued his club's lack of experience as Manchester United bowed out of contention in the Europa League after losing to Sevilla, 2-1, in their semi-final clash in Cologne on Sunday.

“We are still a young side, about three years younger than Sevilla on average,” Solskjaer said via the Guardian after the defeat. “I think you saw that tonight. There was tiredness but there was also inexperience.”

It was Man United’s third semi-final heartbreak of the season, losing in the same round of the League Cup and FA Cup earlier this year.

The setback was a hard pill to swallow for Solskjaer, who was visibly frustrated as he lamented how his players failed to capitalize on several chances to put the game inside their bag.

“I think if we had taken our chances we would have won the game but that is not always how football works,” he said. “We could have scored quite a few goals but when you don’t score from the opportunities you create you know you might be in for a hard night."

The Red Devils were poised to cap their season with silverware after Bruno Fernandes set the tone by scoring the first goal of the match at the 9th minute via a penalty. But Suso put the match back at even in the 26^th minute before Luuk de Jong sealed the deal for Sevilla in the 78^th minute.

“We were caught on the break for the winning goal, we should have stopped the cross in the first place and then we should have cleared it, but it’s been a long season and we need a break now," Solskjaer said.

“Since February we have been fantastic, we have come quite a distance and it’s been exciting to work with these boys, but when you have lost three semi-finals in one season you know you still have work to do to improve. We will be looking at that over the next few weeks, seeing what we can do to add quality to the squad.”

While United heads over to a break, Sevilla will play the winner of Monday's Inter Milan-Shakhtar Donetsk showdown in the final set on Friday.