Stalemate in pitch battle: United draw on away turf
UNITED PLAYERS COME THROUGH MATCH UNSCATHED AFTER FEARS OVER STATE OF PITCH IN RUSSIA:
HENRIKH Mkhitaryan said he came through United’s Europa League draw with FC Rostov unscathed after missing recent games through injury.
The 28-year-old made a goalscoring return to the starting line-up to give United the lead in Russia before the hosts equalised.
Mkhitaryan was substituted on 67 minutes for Anthony Martial but reassured supporters he had not suffered another injury.
“No, hopefully I’ve got no injuries so we will keep fighting and get ready for the next game,” he said. “The first-half was more quiet, they were nothing special beside the goal so I’m happy to score and we were happy to lead but unfortunately we conceded the goal and everything changed.
“We’ve tried to win today, maybe we were not very focused at the start of the secondhalf we’ve played as good as we could on this pitch so I don’t want to even speak about the pitch because for both sides the pitch was an awful thing but for part of football it was not a very interesting game but we tried to do everything.
“You have to win everything, it doesn’t matter if you score and you are winning 1-0, you have to be ready for everything, so we conceded the goal, they equalised and I think we did a mistake there but we don’t want to speak because there is still a second game to play.” Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho was in an upbeat mood after the final whistle. “It was a very good performance in relation to the conditions,” he added. “Impossible to play better, impossible to have the ball, impossible to play a passing game, so we played what the game demanded for us and we played well. “We made one defensive mistake I don’t think we can consider that goal in the movement they had behind our defenders but we cope with the intensity, with the direct game and the result is what we could expect.”
IN the end, Jose Mourinho will be happy UEFA allowed the game to go ahead.
The United manager thought the state of the pitch at Olimp-2 in Rostov should be enough to have the Europa League last-16 first leg postponed.
UEFA said the playing surface was ‘playable’ if not ‘perfect.’
And now United are half a step closer to a Champions League place and with another game of a hectic schedule chalked off. It wasn’t pretty – it was never going to be.
But Mourinho’s team scrapped and battled and did enough.
It could have been better after Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s first-half goal. But a 1-1 draw was still a good result in trying conditions.
United should finish the job at Old Trafford next week. If not, the hard yards in Russia will count for nothing.
Bayern Munich and Ajax have both come here this season and left with defeat. Only Atletico Madrid have won in Rostov this season.
In a bid to counter the pitch, Mourinho switched to a back three for the first time this season. Ashley Young and Daley Blind were deployed as wing-backs as David de Gea and Antonio Valencia were only named on the bench. There was, though, still a plan. And the opening goal was a snapshot of Mourinho’s tactics on the horrible, bobbly pitch. Phil Jones floated a pass on to Marouane Fellaini’s chest before Zlatan Ibrahimovic took over to set up Mkhitaryan.
Back to front in the blink of an eye and a vital away goal. It was not the night for intricate passing triangles in midfield.
Mourinho admitted in the build-up he was unsure whether Mkhitaryan would start in such difficult conditions given the Armenian has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury. Again, he will be glad he took the plunge.
Up until that point, United had just a scuffed Paul Pogba shot in the opening minute to show for all their grit.
The 16,000 Rostov fans created an incredible atmosphere.
In howling wind, Mkhitaryan was booked for putting his arm into Fedor Kudryashov’s face. Ibrahimovic had words with Aleksandar Gatskan. Mourinho fumed at the officials. It was scrappy and, at times, difficult to watch.
United, had, in the first half at least, complete control. But barely 10 minutes after the break, that had disappeared.
Timofei Kalachev clipped a pass over United’s defence, Jones couldn’t decide whether to step up or go with Aleksandar Bukharov and, almost out of nothing, Rostov scored.
The crowd, who by then had grown quiet, were revitalised. And for the next 15 minutes United hung on. But again when they needed to battle, they did.
Mkhitaryan was replaced with Anthony Martial but United struggled to create anything of note in the second half.
It was ugly. The result, at least as far as Mourinho is concerned, was not.