Juan Mata believes a mad five minutes cost Manchester United victory against Swansea City today, after the Red Devils went down to a 2-1 defeat at the Liberty Stadium.

Manchester United looked to pull ahead in the opening 45 minutes, but could not find a way past a Swansea defence which stood up to whatever the Red Devils threw their way, though in truth Louis van Gaal's men did not sternly examine their opponents.




The Red Devils did take the lead in the second half though, quickly pulling ahead in the 48th minute as Mata got on the end of a Luke Shaw cross.

But Swansea were level in the 60th minute when Gylfi Sigurdsson picked out Andre Ayew in a quick counter-attack, the forward powering a header past Sergio Romero.
 

 

Then the Swans were quickly in front themselves, striking again on the 65th minute as Ayew turned provider and played in Bafetimbi Gomis, whose weak shot still found a way past Romero in the Manchester United goal.

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Michael Carrick and Ashley Young were brought on by Van Gaal, who then also turned to Marouane Fellaini, but the Red Devils could not find an equaliser.

Mata was disappointed with the result and told Sky Sports after the match: "It's a big disappointment. We did the most difficult thing, which is to score first.

"Then in five minutes we lost the game.

"We conceded two quick goals and we couldn't score more.

"They changed the shape, so they were quick enough and created two quick plays and scored the goals. We had to learn the lessons from last season, but we didn't.

"We had it under control at the start of the second half and we looked nice, but then we lost it in five minutes."