Paul Scholes savagely picks apart Omonia hero whose dream came true vs Man Utd

No matter how high you get in football, there's always someone to bring you back down to Earth.

For Omonia Nicosia goalkeeper Francis Uzoho, it was Paul Scholes. The Nigerian shot-stopper, 23, produced a phenomenal performance against Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday, keeping the Red Devils at bay until the 93rd minute when Scott McTominay 's scrappy goal secured a hard-fought 1-0 win.

But that didn't take anything away from Uzoho's display, as he received widespread plaudits and even shared a laugh with none other than an astonished Cristiano Ronaldo after one of his spectacular 12 saves. But Scholes was less convinced that the Nigeria international had pulled up any trees at Old Trafford, savagely picking apart his showing post-match.

Channeling his inner Roy Keane on BT Sport and sending presenter Jules Breach and co-pundit Owen Hargreaves into hysterics, the United legend began: "Yeah, he was good. I don't think he made saves that you thought were unbelievable and that he probably shouldn't be making - possibly one from Casemiro where he touched it onto the bar - but other than that I think it was a bit of a mixture of poor finishing as well.

"You see these saves, that was middle of the goal, he should make that. I think that's a good save, not a great finish from Marcus [Rashford], I thought he got a knick on that but again, that's middle of the goal and he's diving away. Look, he was lucky, he saved almost everything. He'd have been a miracle if he'd saved that shot from McTominay."

Continuing to watch Uzoho's highlights reel, Scholes added: "That's a decent save, that's not a bad one. He maybe should've caught that one, I think. The second one's a better where but I think Marcus might've been offside, scruffy finish... There's so many of them. Again, straight at him, has to save that one! He has to save all of them.

"Look, he was great, don't get me wrong, he did really well. But he saved everything he should've saved, that's all he did. He is a goalkeeper don't forget, he is supposed to save the ball."

Nevertheless, nothing could dampen Uzoho's "dream" night, as it soon emerged that he was a lifelong Red Devils supporter. With fanatic tweets dating back to his teenage years coming to light, the 23-year-old faced off against some of his idols such as opposite number David de Gea - and he didn't miss the chance to snap a picture with United manager Erik ten Hag in the press room after the match.

"I said 'well done'," Ten Hag revealed. "He had many, many saves, so many clear goals were not in, so we kept them in the game. So the performance until the box was good and the finishing was not that good tonight. Let's hope we save the goals for the coming week."

Despite the narrow defeat for his Cypriot side, which boosted the Red Devils' hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase, Uzoho couldn't hide his delight at his own heroics during a heartwarming post-match interview.

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"I am not disappointed, because we had a good game, but we would have preferred to have got at least a point," the shot-stopper declared to BT Sport. "It is a dream come true to play here. I have dreamt about it for a long, long time."

When Uzoho confirmed in a press conference shortly afterwards that he and his father were United fans, Omonia boss Neil Lennon quipped: "He's not shut up about it the last few weeks!"

Ex- Celtic gaffer Lennon added: "I'm very proud of the team obviously, very proud of this man sitting to my left. He was outstanding. He was inspired and when you play a team with his calibre with a team of our calibre you need your goalkeeper to play well and he was just world-class tonight. I'm so happy for him."

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