Man Utd Trophy Drought Has Gone on Too Long, Says Dejected de Gea

David de Gea. (AP)
David de Gea. (AP)
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Man Utd Trophy Drought Has Gone on Too Long, Says Dejected de Gea

David de Gea. (AP)
David de Gea. (AP)

Manchester United have gone too many years without trophies and need a more determined collective effort to end their drought, goalkeeper David de Gea said after they crashed out of the Champions League following a defeat by Atletico Madrid.

A first-half header from Renan Lodi gave Atletico a 1-0 win on Tuesday for a 2-1 aggregate last-16 victory that extinguished United's hopes of a title this season and extended their trophy drought to five years.

"Of course it's not good enough," De Gea, who was part of the United squad that won the Europa League crown in 2017, said. "There are too many years without any trophies, even without fighting for trophies.

"We need to be clear we want to achieve good things and fight for trophies. We don't just want to play for the top four and get out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals.

"So we need much more from everyone because this club is too big for where we are now. We are far from the fighting places for the Premier League, for the Champions League, so we need much more from everyone."

United are fifth in the Premier League with 50 points from 29 games and face a daunting task to make the top four and earn a place in next year's Champions League.

"This is where we are at the moment. It's a difficult situation. We have to keep fighting. I feel very sad. But we were not good enough," De Gea said of the Atletico result.

"We are really disappointed with the result. It's difficult to put into words how we feel at the moment. We did not enough in both games to win it. It's a disappointing day for us."



Inter Looking to Power Back up Ahead of Champions League Match at Barcelona

 Inter Milan's Italian coach Simone Inzaghi reacts during the Italian Serie A football match between Inter Milan and Roma at the San Siro stadium in Milan on April 27, 2025. (AFP)
Inter Milan's Italian coach Simone Inzaghi reacts during the Italian Serie A football match between Inter Milan and Roma at the San Siro stadium in Milan on April 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Inter Looking to Power Back up Ahead of Champions League Match at Barcelona

 Inter Milan's Italian coach Simone Inzaghi reacts during the Italian Serie A football match between Inter Milan and Roma at the San Siro stadium in Milan on April 27, 2025. (AFP)
Inter Milan's Italian coach Simone Inzaghi reacts during the Italian Serie A football match between Inter Milan and Roma at the San Siro stadium in Milan on April 27, 2025. (AFP)

Strange things happen when Inter Milan plays Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals.

The last time the two teams met in the final four of Europe’s elite club competition, in 2010, Barcelona had to make a 15-hour journey by bus to Milan after an ash cloud caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull shut down air space.

Barcelona lost that first leg 3-1 and a stout defensive performance by Inter in the return match saw it advance to the final 3-2 on aggregate — where it beat Bayern Munich to clinch a historic treble under Jose Mourinho.

Inter is hoping it won't have to make a similarly arduous journey after an unprecedented blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday.

Power had almost fully returned to Spain early Tuesday morning and Inter’s charter flight was still scheduled to take off for Barcelona at 5 p.m. local time ahead of the first leg of their semifinal on Wednesday.

Barcelona’s 17-year-old star Lamine Yamal said he was caught at the team’s training grounds on the outskirts of the city when power went out just after noon on Monday.

“The truth is that we didn’t know what to do. I was with my teammates all day at the training center,” Yamal said on Tuesday. “The blackout made us all very nervous. But of course, now we are only thinking about the semifinal that we are very motivated to play.”

Inter coach Simone Inzaghi will be hoping his team can power back up for the game as well.

Inter heads to Barcelona following a dire run of results that has seen its dreams of another treble evaporate.

For the first time in more than 13 years, Inter has lost three straight matches without scoring a goal.

Since a 2-2 draw against Bayern in the Champions League quarterfinals, the Nerazzurri have lost 1-0 to both Bologna and Roma in Serie A and 3-0 to AC Milan in the second leg of their Italian Cup semifinal.

That has also seen them been leapfrogged at the top of the Serie A table by Napoli, slipping three points behind the new league leader.

“The three defeats hurt and we’re not used to this, we have to look at ourselves and try to recover our physical and mental energy,” Inzaghi said.

Those three games, however, had something in common: Marcus Thuram was missing.

Thuram, who has been out with a left thigh issue, has scored 17 goals and provided nine assists across all competitions for Inter this season.

Without the France forward, Lautaro Martinez has appeared fatigued attempting to carry Inter’s attack. And Marko Arnautovic, Thuram’s replacement, has been ineffective.

Thuram has returned to training and could even start on Wednesday.

“We’ll head to Barcelona and we will play them with respect, not fear,” Inzaghi added.