Le Tissier: Martial's Handball Baffles Me

Matt Le Tissier says he failed to comprehend what Manchester United forward Anthony Martial was doing when his bizarre first-half handball gifted CSKA Moscow an early penalty.

Having started their Champions League Group B tie the better of the two sides, United found themselves trailing after 15 minutes when Martial blocked CSKA right-back's Mario Fernandes' chip with his arm.

David de Gea saved Roman Eremenko's initial spot kick, but Seydou Doumbia was on hand to rifle home the rebound, handing the hosts a lead for the following 50 minutes.

"I'm not quite sure what Martial was doing to give away the penalty," Le Tissier told Soccer Special.

"I don't understand what his hand was doing up there because it was right up high. It was in the penalty area! I guess that's what happens when the centre-forward is in the penalty area."

Le Tissier sympathised with De Gea after his superb penalty save proved to be worthless, with Doumbia capitalising on some lax defending to tap the ball home from close range.

He added: "De Gea was incredibly unlucky. He saved the penalty and it hits his foot. Where it was probably going to go to a United player, the deflection goes to Doumbia and smashes it in.

"Having seen another angle of the penalty though, no CSKA players encroached on the penalty but two United players were in front of Doumbia when De Gea saved the penalty. They stopped and Doumbia carried on.

"Phil Jones was probably the main culprit in thinking his job was done once De Gea had saved the penalty. He didn't continue his run and Doumbia did. There is probably a little criticism levelled at Jones there."

The result in Russia leaves United level on points with CSKA, behind group leaders Wolfsburg who beat PSV Eindhoven 2-0.

And Le Tissier, while revealing he thought United deserved to win the game, admitted they just lacked the quality in the final third to claim the three points.

"You could describe United's performance as satisfactory, but they did dominate the football match," he said.

"They had over 70 per cent possession and a lot of that possession was in CSKA's half. They didn't really carve out too many clear-cut chances and that's probably the one criticism you could level at them.

"Wayne Rooney had a decent headed chance but, other than the goal, Igor Akinfeev didn't have too much to do tonight.

"They probably deserved to win the game in terms of possession but did they create enough chances to warrant tacking all three points? Probably not."

Credit: Skysports.com