Luke Shaw admits Manchester United were "awful" in the first half against AC Milan

Manchester United were out of sorts in a less than impressive first half in the crucial second leg against AC Milan in the Europa League. Paul Pogba’s introduction at the half-time break gave the necessary lift to help the club qualify for the quarterfinals of the tournament. Speaking after the match, United left-back Luke Shaw was understandably delighted with the 1-0 victory, saying, “Obviously I’m very happy that we’re through.”

The victory, however, cannot hide how poor Manchester united were in the first half and Shaw gave his honest opinion in the post-match interview. “I think the lads will agree we weren’t good at all. In the first half, we were awful. The first 10-15 minutes, we started well, kept control of the ball. It’s like a switch. We turned off and we were very sloppy and kept giving away stray balls, bringing pressure on ourselves,” Shaw was quoted as saying by manutd.com.

The English full-back went on to explain how big an impact Pogba’s introduction at the half-time break was for the Reds from Manchester. “Maybe we were lucky but in the second half, it always helps when you have a world-class player to come on and make a difference,” he said. “He did that, it’s brilliant to have him back. The most important thing was the result and getting through to the next round, no matter how we played.”

Pogba’s impact was immediate, getting the ball in a crowded penalty box, the Frenchman initially feigned to shoot, leaving Milan defenders out of position before slotting the ball at the roof of the net from an acute angle. And, Shaw just cannot stop praising the Frenchman’s ability. “In tight spaces, he’s always been brilliant,” the English international added.

Luke Shaw further opened up about how much the squad missed Pogba during the injury layoff. “I’ll be honest, we’ve missed him a lot in the last few weeks that he’s been out. The squad is bigger now, the injured players are coming back, so it’s all positives that players are coming back and we’ll hopefully have a bigger squad on Sunday.”