Manchester United were made to pay for a 26th-minute red card to Juan Mata at West Bromwich Albion, who won 1-0 thanks to Salomon Rondon’s 66th minute strike at The Hawthorns.
The Baggies claimed a 1-0 win over 10-man United at the Hawthorns – their first home league win over the Red Devils in 32 years .
United dropped three points behind fourth-place Manchester City in the race for Champions League qualification and is now only three ahead of Liverpool, which has won three straight league games for the first time in a year.
The Dutchman, speaking after the match, says he was not happy about Mata’s two first half bookings, which saw referee Mike Dean send him off in the 26th minute.
He said: “it’s a big blow,”We have played 60 minutes with 10 versus 11, and this is the fifth match in 14 days,” “It’s very difficult to play against 11 players (in this situation). I think it’s the reason why we lost.”
Mata collected his first booking for blocking a quickly taken free kick, a decision Van Gaal described as “stupid.”
“This match also has an influence on the next match so for us it is very bad, a bad moment.
“It was in my opinion an unnecessary loss, we don’t deserve to lose. When you see at the end that the chances West Bromwich Albion had in comparison with us it is an unnecessary loss.
“His second offence was a foul but is that also always a yellow card? “You saw the first three tackles of West Bromwich Albion to our players – no yellow cards. But thereferee gave two yellow cards in five minutes to the same person.”
The result moved West Brom to 39 points, which should secure their premiership status for another season, and United on 6th with 47 points hoping to qualify for Europe biggest competition.
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