Rasmus Hojlund showed Manchester United he could match Harry Kane impact at Bayern Munich

Man Utd lost 4-3 in the Champions League at Bayern Munich but Rasmus Hojlund scored his first goal for the club and looked to relish the occasion.

On the eve of this game Andre Onana saw in the bowels of the Allianz Arena and said he wasn’t just at Manchester United because he was good with his feet.

“If the team needs me with my feet, I will be good with my feet, but it depends on the situation, a high block or a low block, first I have to save the goals, that’s why I’m here,” said the £47million goalkeeper.

It’s typical of the type of thing that happens to United, a football club that seems to exist almost solely to be the butt of the jokes and the source of memes these days.

It was a horrible error for Onana, who might have seen Leroy Sane’s poor shot late, but still got his technique all wrong, diving over the top of the ball and allowing it to wriggle under his body. It was always going to prove costly as well.

This United side can start games well. Think Tottenham, think Brighton, and now think Bayern. Then something goes against them and they fold like a pack of cards. They were the better team in Munich until Onana’s mistake. Then they were never in the game again.

Hojlund rises to the occasion

When the TV camera panned down the line of United players while the Champions League anthem was being played before kick-off in the Allianz Arena, there was a mischievous grin flashing across the face of Rasmus Hojlund.

His only previous experience of the Champions League was losing a qualifier with Sturm Graz, but Ten Hag said he was a 20-year-old who was brave and ready for the big occasions, and he looked like he was loving this.

It’s not a night this team will want to remember for long, but for Hojlund the Allianz Arena on September 20 will always be a little special after opening his Champions League account. It wasn’t the cleanest strike of the ball he will produce or the best goal he will score, but he celebrated it with relish, taunting the Bayern fans behind that goal after dragging United back into the game.

Unfortunately, that is a status they could hold on to for just four minutes before Harry Kane did what he does and scored. It was 1-1 in their own personal duel.

The Kane-Hojlund debate will run and run, but in the young Dane there has been enough to think he can at least have an impact on this side. Kane has five goals in five games for Bayern. Hojlund will be going some to do that, but he looks the type of player who could bring more out of his teammates as well.

A turning point?

It sounds ridiculous to call a fourth defeat in six a turning point when you’ve let in 14 goals in five games, but maybe the way United fought in the second half gives them something to cling to from what could have been a damaging night in Munich.

United conceding four in this game didn’t feel surprising, especially given the chances Bayern created. Scoring three themselves did feel like a shock.

Two of them came very late through Casemiro, who until then endured a tough night against Jamal Musiala, but it meant Ten Hag’s team could leave the Allianz Arena with a glimmer of pride.

They wouldn’t have wanted to lose this game, but in the circumstances, this wasn’t too bad. They have to be better defensively, of that there can be no doubt, but this season has to turn at some point if it’s not to unravel spectacularly, and maybe the late drama here could be that moment.

Reguilon’s impact

Sergio Reguilon was maybe 100 yards from the United fans in the third tier of the Allianz Arena when his diligent tracking of Sane saw him get a foot in and stop a dangerous Bayern break, but he would have heard the appreciative roars ripple across the pitch.

This was at a time when Bayern weren’t really in the game and United were on top and it was another statement of intent from their impressive loanee left-back. Reguilon looked bright as an attacking force down the left and was solid defensively against Sane.

There were eyebrows raised when he signed, given how far down the pecking order he had fallen at Tottenham and the fact he started just two La Liga games for Atletico Madrid last season, but in a dreadful week for United, the Spaniard was one of the few positives.

A proper club

Bayern Munich are known as FC Hollywood by some in Germany and they attract more attention than any other Bundesliga club, but they stick their chest out and relish the attention. This is a massive club and it knows it.

The Allianz Arena is 17 years old but still looks as good as new. It’s modern, atmospheric, attractive and brilliant for supporters. Everything works, the view is good from every seat and it holds the noise.

United’s Under-19s started their UEFA Youth League campaign at the FC Bayern Campus on Wednesday. It’s a training round to put Carrington to shame but it’s only home to Bayern’s academy. It includes a mini-stadium for games like this, with FC Bayern branding and colours.

It’s everything an elite club should be, flaunting their wealth and behaving like the European super club they are. Then you look at Old Trafford, you look at Carrington and you realise United are no longer on the same level in terms of facilities.