Manchester United winner was a 's*** goal' despite Juan Mata magic says Wolfsburg boss Dieter Hecking

The Spanish playmaker pulled off an outrageous assist for Chris Smalling's strike

Hecking, above, was frustrated by side's surrender of an early lead (Getty Images)

Wolfsburg manager Dieter Hecking described Manchester United's winner in Wednesday night's Champions League encounter as a 's*** goal', despite Juan Mata's outrageous assist to set up the strike.

The Spaniard produced a marvellous lay-off, flicking the ball behind him with his heel, over the top of the defence, and setting up defender Chris Smalling to slot home from six yards out. He had previously dispatched a penalty to equalise for the home side, which cancelled out Daniel Caligiuri's fourth-minute opener.

Hecking, however, was not impressed and labelled the goal a "scheiss-tor" in a post-match interview. "We started well and surprised United early on," the former Nurnberg coach said. "The equaliser was a penalty and again, the second goal was unlucky - as we say in German 'a s*** goal'.

"In the last 20 to 25 minutes we pressed them and caused a lot of problems," he added. "Julian Draxler was fouled by Morgan Schneiderlin on 84 minutes. That should have been a red card, and we might have found ourselves against 10 men for the last few minutes."

United manager Louis van Gaal, who is slowly starting to build a consistent winning side, was nevertheless unconvinced my his side's performance and believes the must improve if they are to progress far in the continent's premier club competition.

"We have to improve a lot, like all the players of Manchester United, to be at the top of Europe," said van Gaal. "We have beaten Wolfsburg, I am very happy and the players are very happy, but we have to improve on the second-half performance.

"We have to know that and I have said that also to the players. That is why we are here, to improve ourselves and to win every game."