📅 November 3, 2026
Manchester United 3-2 Roma: Cunha Completes Comeback From 2-0 Down, Then Sees Red
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Manchester United were 2-0 down to Roma inside 20 minutes and won 3-2. Bruno Fernandes scored a retaken penalty, then Matheus Cunha scored twice in three minutes late on to end a nine-game run without a win. Cunha was then sent off in stoppage time, and United held on with ten men.
It’s United’s first win since the 4-0 against Sabah on 10 September, and it’s the result Michael Carrick needed.
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2-0 down
Roma were ahead after 11 minutes. United lost the ball in midfield, Rodrigo Mora switched play, and Matías Soulé finished from the middle of the box. Then Roma got a penalty. Goal’s live coverage has Ayden Heaven blocking a Soulé shot with his arm, and Donyell Malen sent Senne Lammens the wrong way.
Bruno Fernandes was booked in the first half, and United went in two down. Carlos Baleba didn’t last long after the break: he went off injured and Youri Tielemans came on.
The penalty, twice
The way back started with Cunha. Gianluca Mancini caught him in the box, and Fernandes’s penalty was saved by Devis Vásquez. The referee ordered a retake for encroachment. Goal names Bryan Cristante as the Roma player who came into the box early. Fernandes scored the second one. 2-1 on 58 minutes.
Cunha’s three minutes
Heaven was booked on 70 minutes, and at 75 Carrick took him off and sent on Lisandro Martínez, with Shea Lacey replacing Amad. Hayters reports Martínez came on to a few boos. He wasn’t booked, but it doesn’t change what we said before kick-off: he shouldn’t have been on the bench, let alone on the pitch.
On 83 minutes a Roma defender misjudged the ball in the box and Cunha finished from close range for 2-2. Three minutes later he ran into the box and beat Vásquez at his near post from a tight angle. 3-2, and Old Trafford had turned it around.
Then he threw some of it away. Cunha took his shirt off celebrating and was booked for it. In the first minute of stoppage time he went in late on Leonardo Balerdi and got a second yellow. United saw out the rest with ten men, with Matthijs de Ligt and Mason Mount on for Harry Maguire and Fernandes. ESPN lists Maguire’s withdrawal as an injury.
What it means
United have six points from four Champions League games, with the top 24 going through. The win doesn’t fix the league, where they’re 17th, but it gives Carrick something to take into Sunday’s game against Aston Villa, the second of the two matches he was reportedly given before a review.
Cunha won this game and now faces a suspension because of it. Two goals that took the pressure off his manager, then a shirt off and a late lunge with the game nearly won. Carrick will want both conversations.
The comeback came from the players who were in the team. Fernandes kept taking responsibility after a saved penalty, and Cunha kept making runs into the box when the game looked gone. That’s the side Carrick should build Sunday around.
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Sources: Score, scorers, minutes, substitutions and bookings from ESPN’s match data and Goal’s live coverage, 3 November, with the penalty retake, Cunha’s goals, the boos for Martínez and the end of the winless run also from Hayters. Heaven’s handball and Cristante’s encroachment are Goal’s alone, so they’re attributed. Sources disagree on the minute of Roma’s penalty (17 or 18) and on the assists for Cunha’s goals, so we’ve left those out. No post-match quotes from Carrick or the players were published at the time of writing. The league position and the Carrick review from our earlier coverage.