THE VERDICT: UNITED 1 ROSTOV 0
THE Europa League door to the Champions League next season remains ajar for United - but they made hard work of unlocking it against Rostov.
After a difficult trip to Russia last week, United must have thought they had done the hard part in this last-16 tie.
But there was still plenty to do at Old Trafford.
It wasn’t pretty in Rostov and this was arguably uglier.
Jose Mourinho’s BBC interview broke just before the match in which the United boss claimed that one of the players he wouldn’t have sold would have been Chicharito.
But even the Mexican poacher wouldn’t have had much to feed off in a dire first half at Old Trafford.
When you are making thinly-veiled digs at your predecessor Louis van Gaal then at least you hope your team puts in a display that doesn’t resemble one of those forgettable nights under the Dutchman when United laboured. But this was as frustrating as so many of those occasions when LVG’s team had fans tearing their hair out - or yawning. Being stuck in the M6 roadworks might have been marginally more preferable than a dire first 45 minutes. This was certainly not one of those electric Old Trafford European nights when the stadium shakes - and far from Mourinho’s hope that the support could lift his side. The place was dead. The Reds had been so professional in Russia on the treacherous Rostov Olimp-2 pitch that has been now banned by their league. But on a perfect surface United were worse. There was plenty of craft and guile in Mourinho’s XI with Juan Mata, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ander Herrera but chances were limited. A Mkhitaryan chip, a Zlatan Ibrahimovic thunderbolt and a Paul Pogba curler was not an impressive return for a team that dominated possession. Mourinho has often emerged as a hero with his interval switches but even 15 minutes with the Portuguese did not elevate the display in the Stuart Mathieson Mata (70) 69% 31% 18 6 4 4 None Bukharov Gediminas Mazeika second half. Out of the blue United managed to dredge up a moment of swift counter attacking to rip open the Russians.
It was presented on a plate in the centre of midfield for Mata to break and feed Ibrahimovic, the Swede swept the ball onto Mkhitaryan and is cross was deftly flicked into the path of the originator of the move, Mata, as he poached the winner a la Chicharito.
Rostov had still had a couple of chances to stretch this non-event into an extra 30 minutes with an away goal but Sergio Romero ensured we would be spared that.