Arsenal and Manchester United were both in action on Tuesday night - but one former Gunners star only had praise for a pair from Old Trafford
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Arsenal and Manchester United famously don't get on, with their rivalry extending back even further than the days of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.
That hasn't stopped one Gunners legend from voicing his praise of two Manchester United players, though, after they escaped a late scare against Copenhagen on Tuesday night to pick up their first win of their 2023/24 Champions League campaign.
Harry Maguire scored the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute, converting a header from a Christian Eriksen cross. Disaster nearly struck, however.
Manchester United secured a late win in the Champions League (Image credit: Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
With the score 1-0 deep into stoppage time at the end of the game, referee Marco Guida awarded the Danish side a penalty after Scott McTominay raised his boot high against Mohamed Elyounoussi. Jordan Larsson - son of Henrik - stepped up, but Andre Onana saved his spot kick in what proved to be the last action of the match.
That prompted former Arsenal hero Mesut Ozil to make a ringing endorsement on X (Twitter) of Onana and Maguire.
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"Harry Maguire & Andre Onana deserve that - silencing their haters," Ozil wrote.
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The Manchester United duo have come in for plenty of criticism at the start of the 2023/24 season - and even longer for Maguire - after making mistakes for Erik ten Hag's side and not performing to what many people deem a high enough standard.
For Ozil, though, their match-winning actions have done enough to keep the critics off their backs. During his eight years at Arsenal, in which he won four FA Cups, Ozil faced plenty of backlash himself due to his apparent lack of work rate.
Mesut Ozil praised Manchester United on social media (Image credit: Getty)
The German chose not to pay attention to it, though.
"Look, I know there's people out there that like me, there are also people who don't like me," he told the Daily Mailin 2018. "This is a fact of life. But, for me, what is important is what the people in my inner circle tell me. I don't care what people say outside of that. It doesn't affect me.
"If the coach, or people in my circle, tell me: 'Mesut you have to do this, or have to do that,' then I listen. I'll take that and work on it. But I don't look at what someone else is saying. It really doesn't affect me."
Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.
