Man United stunned 1-1 by Dutch club Twente in revamped Europa League

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag questioned his players' killer instinct after they were held to a 1-1 draw by his old club FC Twente in the revamped Europa League on Wednesday.

Sam Lammers capitalized on a mistake by Christian Eriksen in the second half at Old Trafford and raced away to fire an equalizer for the Dutch underdog.

“You saw that was the game of their life. They fought for every yard and we didn’t,” Ten Hag said. “99% is not enough, You have to give 100%. You have kill the game. You have to finish it off.”

Eriksen had put United ahead with a stunning first-half strike but was caught in possession by Lammers, whose goal secured an unexpected point for the visitors.

Ten Hag had spoken before the game of his affection for the team he supported as a boy in the Netherlands and represented as a player. He said it was “not nice to have to hurt something you love.”

Instead it was United fans left in pain, despite Eriksen seemingly putting the home team on course for victory.

United has won just three of seven games in all competitions this season and Wednesday's draw came after a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.

Eriksen swept United ahead in the 35th with a first-time shot into the top corner. Connecting with a loose ball just inside the box, the playmaker didn't break stride as he whipped his effort past past Twente goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall with power and precision.

With one fist clenched, he ran to the corner to celebrate in front of the home fans.

But it was Twente's supporters left cheering the loudest after Lammers' goal in the 68th when beating Andre Onana at his near post.

“There’s a lot of football (still to play) when you (are) one up and the game takes more than 90 minutes," Ten Hag said. “And you have to fight until the end and score the second goal.”

Like the Champions League, the second-tier Europa League has a new format and 36 teams instead of 32. It features a league system in which each team plays eight games against different opponents through January, replacing the old group stage.

In a clash between the Turkish and Greek champions, Galatasaray beat PAOK 3-1. Victor Osimhen, who moved from Napoli to Galatasaray earlier in September, made his presence felt. The Nigeria striker’s goalbound header was deflected by defender Abdul Rahman Baba into his own net early in the second half. Giannis Konstantelias equalized on a rebound before Osimhen set up Yunus Akgün to net the winner. Mauro Icardi added a stoppage-time goal.

Lazio cruised past Dynamo Kyiv 3-0. Boulaye Dia struck twice and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru added one. Both teams ended the game with 10 men.

Real Sociedad, struggling in La Liga, got a goal from Ander Barrenetxea at Nice but the home team salvaged a 1-1 draw thanks to Pablo Rosario's goal late in the first half.

Another team struggling domestically, Bundesliga’s Hoffenheim took home a point from Denmark in a 1-1 draw with Danish Superliga’s leader Midtjylland. Darío Osorio put the hosts ahead late in the first half before substitute Max Moerstedt leveled it in the final minute.

In Brussels, Anderlecht struck twice in the span of five minutes in the second half on the way to a 2-1 victory over Ferencváros. Yari Verschaeren scored on the hour and Kasper Dolberg added the second from the spot.

Slavia Prague scored in each half for a 2-0 win at Bulgaria’s Ludogorets.

Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt and Dutch side AZ Alkmaar became the first teams to claim victories earlier on Wednesday.

Jens Petter Hauge’s two goals guided 10-man Bodø/Glimt from a goal down to a 3-2 win over Porto while Troy Parrott netted the winner from the penalty spot for Alkmaar to beat Sweden’s Elfsborg 3-2.

Porto, a two-time champion in Europe’s second-tier league, got an early goal from Samu. Kasper Høgh's equalized and Hauge netted twice for a 3-1 lead. Porto reduce the deficit to one in the final minute through substitute Deniz Gül.

Alkmaar answered Timothy Ouma's opener with two goals from Ruben van Bommel on both sides of the interval. Simon Hedlund made it 2-2 before Parrott's late penalty.

Ahead of a late game between Dynamo Kyiv and Lazio, a group of about 60 Lazio fans were stopped by German authorities in Hamburg after attempting to avoid a police escort and were found to be carrying knives, clubs and other weapons. Fans who were held overnight were banned from attending Wednesday’s game but there were no arrests.

Dynamo plays its home Europa League games in Hamburg because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Karel Janicek contributed.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Manchester United's Harry Maguire reacts during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Manchester United and Twente at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Ludogorets' Caio Vidal, leftt, vies for the ball with Slavia Praha's El Hadji Malick Diouf during their Europa League first match of the main phase, at Ludogorets Arena, Razgrad, Bulgaria, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Uzunov)

Slavia Praha's Christos Zafeiris reacts after Mojmír Chytil scored his goal against Ludogorets during a Europa League soccer match at Ludogorets Arena, Razgrad, Bulgaria, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Uzunov)

Anderlecht players celebrate after Anderlecht's Yari Verschaeren, not seen, scored his side's opening goal during the Europa League soccer match between Anderlecht and Ferencvaros in Anderlecht, Belgium, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francois Walschaerts)

Anderlecht's Mario Stroeykens, left, is challenged by Ferencvaros' Adama Traore during the Europa League soccer match between Anderlecht and Ferencvaros in Anderlecht, Belgium, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francois Walschaerts)

Midtjylland's Dario Osorio, left, celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between FC Midtjylland and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Herning, Denmark, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

FC Midtjylland's Ousmane Diao, and Hoffenheim's Max Moerstedt battle for a head ball during a Europa League soccer match against FC Midtjylland at MCH Arena in Herning, Denmark, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Galatasaray's Yunus Akgun, celebrates a goal during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Galatasaray and PAOK at the Ali Sami Yen stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo)

Galatasaray's Victor Osimhen, second left, celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Galatasaray and PAOK at the Ali Sami Yen stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo)

Galatasaray's Yunus Akgun, celebrates a goal during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Galatasaray and PAOK at the Ali Sami Yen stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo)

Lazio's Boulaye Dia, center, scores past Dynamo's Oleksandr Tymchyk, right, and Vladyslav Dubinchak during a Europa League soccer match, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2204, in Hamburg, Germany. (Claus Bergmann/dpa via AP)

Elfsborg's Timothy Ouma, right, celebrates with Elfsborg's Simon Hedlund after scoring his side's opening goal during the Europa League soccer match between AZ Alkmaar and Elfsborg at the AFAS stadium, in Alkmaar, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Maurice van Steen)

AZ Alkmaar's Ruben van Bommel, centre, celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Europa League soccer match between AZ Alkmaar and Elfsborg at the AFAS stadium, in Alkmaar, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Maurice van Steen)

Elfsborg's goalkeeper Isak Pettersson dives but fails to save the goal from AZ Alkmaar's Ruben van Bommel, centre, during the Europa League soccer match between AZ Alkmaar and Elfsborg at the AFAS stadium, in Alkmaar, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Maurice van Steen)

Glimt's Kasper Høgh, left, scores his side's opening goal during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Bodø/Glimt and Porto, at the Aspmyra stadium, in Bodo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (Mats Torbergsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Glimt's Jens Petter Hauge celebrates scoring his side's second goal during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Bodø/Glimt and Porto, at the Aspmyra stadium, in Bodo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (Mats Torbergsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa is airborne during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Bodø/Glimt and Porto, at the Aspmyra stadium, in Bodo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (Mats Torbergsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Manchester United's Christian Eriksen celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Manchester United and Twente in Manchester, England, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Manchester United's Harry Maguire reacts during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Manchester United and Twente at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Twente's Sam Lammers, centre, scores his side's first goal past Manchester United's goalkeeper Andre Onana during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Manchester United and Twente at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Manchester United's Lisandro Martinez reacts during the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Manchester United and Twente at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a strange outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been missing in action, according to a number of experts.

“We seem to have things under very good control," President Donald Trump told reporters Friday evening.

But experts say the situation has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

“The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I've never seen that before.”

The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man's wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests. Some details emerged not through public statements but through disclosures from anonymous sources, including news Friday that the CDC was sending a team to Spain's Canary Islands to meet the Americans onboard.

On Friday evening, health officials issued an updated statement, confirming the deployment of a team to the Canary Islands. They also said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center.

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency's work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world's nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That's not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can't possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)