Man United star praises Irish fans who forced Croke Park game to end early

An interesting take....

The game ended 1-1, before the penalty shootout finished 5-4 in favour of the Red Devils.

However, as the game neared 90 minutes in normal time, referee Neil Doyle was forced to stop the match, as a number of fans invaded the pitch looking for selfies with players.

With more young supporters continuing to invade, he decided to end the game early.

Rather than criticise the disruptive fans, the winning penalty taker, Noussair Mazraoui, praised their passion.

He said: "You don’t want it but it shows the big love they have for this club.

"We’re enjoying it and the atmosphere today was amazing from the fans...

"Where we are, our base camp it’s full 24/7, 11 o’clock, 12 o’clock, they’re still standing in front of the hotel so that shows."

Manager Michael Carrick was also full of praise for the occasion.

He added: “We’ve loved it.

“We were lucky enough to come over here towards the end of last season for a little break, and coming back over, feeling the love, feeling the support, the weather’s been not bad as well, we’ve enjoyed that and the hotel has been fantastic.

“We’ve enjoyed ourselves. We’ve had a little barbeque, some of the boys have played a few holes of golf at the right time and some of the staff have had the odd Guinness but nothing more. You’ve got to when you’re here.

“We heard about what was going to be the turnout but to see how football mad the city is, how cool it is to see the turnout, the overall atmosphere was unbelievable today."