Man United: Paul Pogba jokes he should NOT try and tackle at all after giving away penalty vs Roma

Paul Pogba made light of the dubious penalty given against him during Manchester United’s thrashing of Roma, joking that he should simply not try and tackle in future.

United have all-but sealed their spot in the Europa League final after hammering Serie A outfit Roma 6-2 at Old Trafford on Thursday night in the first leg of their semi-final tie. 

However, United had to overcome a brief scare at Old Trafford in the rain as Roma were 2-1 ahead at the break with Lorenzo Pellegrini converting from the penalty spot before Edin Dzeko added a second after Bruno Fernandes put the hosts in front.

But Roma’s penalty was highly contentious, after Pogba inadvertently handled the ball in the area with his arm raised after he slid to the ground to try and block Rick Karsdorp’s cross.

And Pogba has since joked about the incident, saying he tried to be the ‘English guy’ and tackle before amusingly insisting he should challenge ‘without arms’.

When asked on BT Sport what he could have done to avoid the penalty, Pogba light-heartedly responded: ‘Just don’t tackle, I don’t know how to tackle, why should I tackle? 

‘That’s my problem, I try to tackle and be the English guy, but I need to practice more. I need to practice to tackle without arms. 

‘It’s unlucky, it’s unlucky for me. I’ve been unlucky a lot this season for penalties, I need to start learning this.

‘But it’s OK, we are confident still and we have the result that we wanted.’

United, unless they dramatically collapse during the second leg next week, will face either Arsenal or Villarreal in the Europa League final in Gdansk on May 26. 

Fernandes and Edinson Cavani were on the scoresheet twice each for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, while Pogba and Mason Greenwood also got in on the act late on.

However, Pogba has refused to get carried away even though their place in the final is all-but secured.

‘The result is positive, but it’s not finished yet – it’s one more leg to go through,’ Pogba added.

‘We’re going to have to stay focused and play the next leg with the same mentality. 

‘I would say first half we made two mistakes and we conceded two goals. After we conceded the second goal we were a bit all over the place, but at half time we said let’s do the right things, the simple things, and everything will go through. The manager spoke, we were all motivated to score more goals.’