Lukaku and Fellaini head United in right direction
Pogba injury only down side after Mourinho’s men return to the top table with a bang
MANCHESTERUTD 3 BASEL 0
THEY are marking the 50th anniversary of their first European Cup triumph of 1968 this season at Old Trafford and while a fourth title in Kiev in May still feels more like a dream than a real possibility for this club, they can at least say that, after one year away, Jose Mourinho’s side look like they belong.
Back in the competition following their second season’s absence of the post-Alex Ferguson era, this was United looking comfortably superior against low-ranking opposition, a game of control and general fluency that had just one dark cloud on the night of Storm Aileen.
That was the injury that forced Paul Pogba out the game early in the first half which might yet have consequences for Mourinho’s immediate season, if not in this opening night Champions League win.
The French general of the midfield gave way on 19 minutes wincing as he walked down to the touchline to be replaced by Marouane Fellaini, scorer of United’s first and creator of the third for another substitute, Marcus Rashford.
In the interim, Romelu Lukaku headed in his sixth in six games for his new club and, generally speaking, when United were not outpassing Basel in colossal numbers, they looked like a team of giants with whom the Swiss champions could not live.
There will be more rigorous tests than this one, but this was at least accomplished with a degree of flair and adventure that was lacking for so much of last season, even in the march to victory in the Europa League.
Mourinho seems more willing for his players to make mistakes, and make them Henrikh Mkhitaryan did but the midfielder was also an integral part of a United team that passed the ball forward and forced themselves into goalscoring positions.
FC Basel have won nine of the last 10 Swiss league championships so the kind of waiting game they were obliged to play for most of this match will have been a serious divergence from their usual domestic business.
By half-time they had managed just 31 per cent of the possession, a statistic which felt on the high side given how little input they had in the game.
United’s first-half goal for the sub-
stitute Fellaini had come down Basel’s left side where the majority of the home team’s attacking play had been directed. There had been some fine combinations down there, with Lukaku getting himself in to cut one back for Mkhitaryan and another good move involving Juan Mata and Anthony Martial that created a further chance for the Armenian that he also missed.
However, it was Ashley Young who led the way down that flank, the 32-year-old throwing himself into the action for the first time since he was injured in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final against Celta Vigo in early May.
It was Young, playing right-back, who twisted and got a yard on the wing-back Blas Riveros on 35 minutes. He crossed perfectly for Fellaini to power one in from a few yards and then point to his name on his back, as his way when celebrating. Young was wearing the captain’s armband by then, handed to him when Pogba walked off slowly, and not a little distraught on 19 minutes. His hand had gone instinctively to the back of his left thigh following an innocuous challenge suggesting a muscular problem.
The two chances for Mkhitaryan, the second of which on 22 minutes came off the post, suggested that United were close and they finally broke Basel down with 10 minutes of the half remaining. It had been a frustrating night for Martial, in the team in place of Marcus Rashford.
In the centre of defence, Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling replaced the suspended Phil Jones and Eric Bailly and there were moments when both looked a little uncertain. They granted Basel just one chance, a poorly-cleared cross that fell to the feet of midfielder Luca Zuffi in the area which he lashed well past David De Gea’s goal. There was one moment in the second half when Mourinho’s expression was that if pure disgust, when Mkhitaryan misplaced a pass and Basel managed to turn United’s defence for the first time. Basel’s Norwegian winger Mohamed Elyounoussi beat Lindelof on the left side of United’s area and opened up the chance for a shot which he hit well, a steeply rising hit that might have beaten a mediocre goalkeeper, but not De Gea. He swatted the shot away and no one was more relieved about the outcome than Mkhitaryan.
By then United were two ahead, a precise cross from Daley Blind dropping nicely for Lukaku at the back post who was undeterred by the grip exerted on him by Basel captain Marek Suchy as he leapt to connect with the cross.
ABSOLUTE
United’s control was pretty much absolute although there was little in the game for Martial save one run from the left in which he cut in on his right and hit a shot at the near post. His game was up when Mourinho brought on Jesse Lingard to stretch the opposition in the closing stages and although there was a standing ovation as the Frenchman came off it did not feel like an evening that changed his season.
It was just Martial’s luck that Rashford, on for Mata, had the best chance of all with six minutes left, a burst from Fellaini down the right and a cut back which Mkhitaryan failed to connect with. The ball fell to Rashford, creeping unmarked into space, and his shot into the ground meant that the ball spun over Tomas Vaclik and extended victory to an appropriate margin.