Manchester United players were “devastated” in the dressing room after their Europa League semi-final loss to Sevilla, according to club captain Harry Maguire.
United took the lead in the first half when Marcus Rashford was fouled in the area and Bruno Fernandes dispatched their 22nd penalty of the season to maintain his 100 per cent record from the spot.
Sevilla hit back before the interval through former Liverpool winger Suso which sparked United into life following the break. The Reds pushed for another goal but couldn’t find the target despite having a host of chances.
The La Liga side took the lead 13 minutes from time when Luuk de Jong evaded both Victor Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka to send his side into another Europa League final with a simple tap-in.
Maguire revealed the defeat was devastating to the United squad after a performance which he believes was deserving of a victory.
“The boys are devastated in there,” Maguire told BT Sport. “We created numerous amounts of chances but we’ve got to win the game.
“The better team lost. They punished us for missing chances. We’ve been ruthless at times this year but today we weren’t.
“We started with a high press, scored and we maybe let them out a bit too easy. They didn’t create many chances to be honest. It’s a ball in the box, they worked it well down the right but we’ve got to do better. We’ll look at it and we have to improve.
“Conceding from two crosses isn’t good enough but we worked our socks off out there. We deserved to win the game and deserved to go through but we ultimately fell short at a semi-final for the third time. It’s disappointing.”
United’s failure to win a trophy this year means it is the first time since 1987-89 that the club has gone three seasons in a row without silverware.
Maguire revealed the players are desperate to end the wait for another major honour.
He added: “For sure, it will happen soon. We want to win it as soon as possible. You can see the talent on the pitch. If we take another giant step next season then we’ll improve again.
“It’s disappointing, we want to win silverware. We’ve got to three semi-finals.
“In the Carabao Cup, it was disappointing to lose. In the FA Cup, we didn’t turn up. Tonight, we were the better team but we lost.
“Maybe that little bit of inexperience has cost us in the end because even though we were on top and creating chances, we shouldn’t have conceded the second goal.”