Manchester United's Jeckyll & Hyde season continued with a Champions League defeat away to Istanbul Basaksehir.
United's second defeat in four days will further turn up the pressure on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian gave a first European start to goalkeeper Dean Henderson for the Group H encounter with the nouveau riche of Istanbul. Paul Pogba was also left on the bench, with possibly an eye on the weekend's trip to Everton.
But United were behind on 13-minutes, and in bizarre fashion.
A United attack broke down, culminating in a long loping ball from Edin Visca from inside his own penalty area. It was latched onto on the halfway line by Demba Ba, who ran clear and fired past Henderson to score Basaksehir's first group goal in the Champions League.
Demba Ba gives Basaksehir the lead! 😮
Where was the Man United defence?#UCL | #VMSport pic.twitter.com/Y47xu4j5Uf— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 4, 2020
Some sloppy passing in the middle third eventually led to United going 2-0 down. Juan Mata was dispossessed by the lively Deniz Turuc, who squared for Visca to double Basaksehir's lead.
Istanbul Basaksehir's second goal.
Man United are all over the place at the back! 👀#UCL | #VMSport pic.twitter.com/3hWDD7Unub— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 4, 2020
United pulled a goal back two-minutes before the break, when Anthony Martial rose to meet a Luke Shaw cross.
Solskjaer's side could have salvaged a point they'd scarcely have deserved right at the death.
Alexandru Epureanu dramatically cleared off the line after a Luke Shaw corner led to a Basaksehir defender almost scoring an own goal.
Defeat to the competition novices comes a week after United managed to annihilate last season's semi-finalists RB Leipzig at Old Trafford.
"We played against lots of good individuals in a good team, well set up and organised," Solskjaer told BT Sport after the game, "We weren’t good enough.
"These matches give us a reality check.
"You can not just come and get three points.
"The first goal was from a short corner kick and we inexcusably forget their striker and we were not well organised enough at the second goal."
