Porto 3-3 Man United: Harry Maguire to the rescue as 10-man United snatch a late point in Portugal

Manchester United had a stoppage time header from substitute Harry Maguire to thank for rescuing a draw against Porto at the Estadio do Dragao on Thursday night.

As a direct result, manager Erik ten Hag is under slightly less pressure than he was about to be had United lost again, conceding three goals for the second time in five days.

His team led 2-0 at one stage and it looked as though it was a performance to silence the critics, at least until the weekend when it’s a trip to high-flying Aston Villa. But the kind of collapse seen all too often in recent seasons happened and United trailed 3-2 until Maguire intervened.

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The best and worst of the Red Devils were on display with Marcus Rashford showing his class to have them cruising with a two-goal lead. Nothing is ever simple with Ten Hag’s team, though, and their defensive weakness was completely exposed as Porto fought back to lead before Maguire’s late header.

United were off to a perfect start when Rashford cut through two Porto players with a quick move and beat Diogo Costa, who should have done better, just seven minutes in. The England international continued to poke at Porto’s back line and soon created another goal, playing a perfectly-weighted pass to Rasmus Hojlund to score, with Costa again not covering himself in glory.

Despite the crushing blows, the Dragons weren’t quite slain and stunned their visitors when Andre Onana’s save fell perfectly for Brazilian forward Pepe to finish just before the half-hour mark. Seven minutes later, Samu Omorodion got ahead of Matthijs de Ligt to head in the equaliser.

The Portuguese side started better in the second half, too, and it took less than five minutes to complete the comeback as the two scorers combined – Pepe cutting back for Samu, who once again beat De Ligt to the ball.

The situation got even more farcical for United as Bruno Fernandes was sent off in the 81st minute, leaving them looking doomed until Maguire got on the end of Eriksen’s corner to level it. Now four games without a win, the pressure keeps building on the Dutch coach, who will have to explain why his team suffered such an implosion.

Credit: 90Mins/Goal