Cunha's double in 180 seconds: Manchester United 3-2 AS Roma

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180 seconds — that is all Matheus Cunha needed on 3 November at Old Trafford. An equaliser in the 83rd minute, a winner in the 86th, and Manchester United had turned a 2-0 half-time deficit into a 3-2 UEFA Champions League win over AS Roma.

Roma built the lead fast. Matías Soulé scored in the 11th minute off a Rodrigo Mora assist, a 0.417-xG finish, and Donyell Malen doubled it in the 17th with a 0.788-xG chance, the joint-largest of the match. Emanuele Lulli came on for Devyne Rensch as Roma's first change in the 21st minute. United pressed without reward before the break — Matheus Cunha drew a block, Carlos Baleba went wide, Bruno Fernandes missed twice — and Soulé's stoppage-time shot clipped the post. Halftime: 0-2.

The second half ran in one direction. Fernandes scored in the 58th minute from a 0.788-xG strike, matching Malen's chance for scale, and Bryan Mbeumo rattled the post a minute later. Harry Maguire's 66th-minute effort was blocked, Diogo Dalot was denied on the line in the 67th, and Fernandes missed again in the 77th. The pressure finally broke through — twice in three minutes.

Cunha was the difference. His 24th-minute shot had been blocked and a 77th-minute try saved; then a 0.715-xG finish levelled it in the 83rd, and 180 seconds later the 0.092-xG winner went in. The assist came from Shea Lacey, on the pitch for 11 minutes after replacing Amad Diallo in the 75th. Roma's reshuffle — Ghilardi for Mancini in the 75th, Ndicka for Hermoso in the 76th, Castro for Malen in the 78th — never got to grips with it. Mason Mount and Matthijs de Ligt entered in the 88th with the work finished.

The ledger says United deserved the turn: 2.70 xG against 1.60, 15 shots against 7, 52 per cent possession. Roma played the better opening act. United wrote the ending, twice through Cunha, in 180 seconds.