Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick felt his side were left to rue missed chances, as Middlesbrough defeated the Reds 8-7 on penalties at Old Trafford.
Despite controlling the first half and going into the break ahead, thanks to a goal from the returning Jadon Sancho, Rangnick's side were unable to add to their lead.
The visitors exploited this, and levelled proceedings in the second half, before ultimately proceeding to victory on penalties.
While he felt his side were left to regret not capitalizing on their early pressure, Rangnick believes Reds were on the receiving end of an incorrect decision to allow the equalizer to stand as Duncan Watmore handled the ball in the build-up to Matt Crooks's equalizer.
"In the end, the goal should never have been given. It's incredible that it stood. It was a clear handball. I would not have needed VAR, it should have been seen by the referee himself but the VAR should not have given the goal," Ragnick said after the match.
"As far as I know, the referee and the VAR decided that it was not intentional, it was coincidental. How can it be coincidental if the hand is up there and the ball is touching his hand and he controlled the ball with his hand? I don't see how this can be coincidental," he added.
"We're really disappointed. The players, the staff, everybody. We should have killed the game off in the first half. We could easily have been 3-0 or 4-0 up. We started well and played extremely well in the whole first half."
"Our movement and tempo of the game were exactly what we intended to do. But it was only 1-0 and a goal like this can always happen, although it shouldn't have happened, from our perspective, because we didn't defend well, we were too open in that counter-attacking situation," the German pointed.
( With inputs from ANI )
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