Marc Skinner hails Jess Park after match-winning magic in 1-0 CL triumph over Juventus

Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner was full of praise for Jess Park after her stunning strike sealed a 1-0 victory over Juventus on Wednesday evening.

With their victory over Italian giants Juventus , United secured a seeded spot in the draw for the Women’s Champions League knockout play-offs.

United took the lead with their very first shot. In the 18th minute, summer recruit Park opened the scoring with a moment of class, bending a superb finish into the net from just outside the penalty area.

As it turned out, that was all United needed to clinch all three points at the Allianz Arena in Turin.

United were impressive in the first half and could have extended their advantage, with Melvine Malard and Park both coming close to adding a second goal.

Juventus’ best effort fell to Amalie Vangsgaard but goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce was on hand to stop her.

The Reds were denied what seemed like a certain penalty when Elisabeth Terland was caught by Cecilia Salvai, but both the referee and VAR failed to penalise Juventus.

United are through to the two-legged play-off round. The draw will take place on Thursday and Skinner’s side will face either Atletico Madrid or OH Leuven for a place in the quarter-finals.

Speaking to reporters after the final whistle, Skinner lauded Park’s “brilliance” and the team’s resilience against a tough opponent.

Skinner said [as quoted by club media ], “I thought Juve were very good tonight, difficult to play against. I thought first half we did better with the ball and second half we had to defend without the ball and they pushed and pushed.”

“We can score those types of goals. The individual quality of Jess Park was the difference. I’m sure Juve would like to defend it better, because there’s players around it.”

“But sometimes brilliance wins the game, and tonight we have won it on brilliance.”

On Terland’s penalty claim, Skinner remarked, “It’s 100% a penalty, I’ve watched it back, so I think that we were unlucky with that as well.”

The United boss continued, “I think that we believe that we’re a very good team, but we didn’t have a lot of European experience to start in the qualifying rounds. We’ll have played the same amount of games in the first half of the season as we do in the whole of the league calendar in England.”

“So we’ve played a lot of games in a short amount of time. What I’d say is that we are very, very proud to be in the top six in Europe.”

Skinner renewed his calls for January reinforcements, stressing that United are in urgent need of squad depth.

“I think we need to add to this group of players, because I think they’re giving absolutely everything, and we’re working well to try and do that. But we definitely need to add to this group, because the games are coming Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, it’s too much to keep churning out the high level performance against a team like Juve.”

“So I’m proud of tonight, because we’ve done that, but we need to add in the winter window for sure.”

He voiced his belief that United will be ready for any challenge the draw presents.

Featured image Michael Campanella via Getty Images

online polls

The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social