Zorya Luhansk 0-2 Manchester United
We’re through. So, job done. This Europa League group campaign has confirmed my contempt for the early stages of this competition, but after finishing second in our pool to Fenerbahce, we can’t claim that we’re too big a club for UEFA’s second competition.
In a way it was fitting that such a weird group stage – two of our best performances of the season at home to Fener and Feyenoord, two of the worst away to those teams – ended in such a dull game. Honestly, it was like a pre-season game out there. Mind, it wasn’t helped by the rock hard surface, with temperatures of at times -7 degrees contributing to the poor play. The crowd in Odessa could be forgiven for falling asleep. A classic, it wasn’t.
The supporters were in good spirits though, because quite frankly it didn’t matter that the game was total crap. The fact that Zorya, a tiny club who were languishing in the third tier of Ukrainian football as recently as 2003, were hosting United was a huge moment for the club. It was done to death by the commentators but it needs repeating: This ‘home’ fixture was being played 600 miles from the city of Luhansk, with Eastern Ukraine still deep in conflict. So for the club exiled in sleepy Zaporizhia (the stadium there is not up to UEFA’s standards) a game against Pogba, Ibrahimovic and Rooney was a landmark, a real moment of triumph.
Spending time on matters such as this avoids mentioning the football, which was dreadful. Mourinho played the ‘A’ team (although Carrick, Valencia and Darmian were left at home) but the 1st half passed by with us having the ball and doing nothing with it. Romero made a decent save at some point, shortly before a flare landed near him. Thankfully, the deadlock was broken soon after the break with a superb individual goal from Mkhitaryan, his first in a red shirt. A delicious nutmeg, calm finish. Zorya were pretty poor so there was never a chance of an equaliser, and it was duly wrapped up when Pogba played in Zlatan who finished simply. That made it 7 goals in 6 games in all competitions for the big Swede. At 35. Jeez he’s brilliant. Eric Bailly made his comeback and looked good, late clash of heads notwithstanding. Fosu Mensah had a decent cameo. And that’s it. Onto Spurs, when I’ll actually be there….
