It wasn’t pretty, but Manchester United laboured to their first three points of their Europa League campaign with victory over Ukrainian minnows Zorya Luhansk.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the game’s solitary goal from close range in the second half to get Jose Mourinho’s side up and running in Europe’s second-tier competition.
Mourinho named a strong side, but a sparse crowd saw an unconvincing display from United.
Juan Mata caught the eye of our man David McDonnell, but who was your man of the match at Old Trafford?
Here are the full player ratings…
Manchester United
Romero 6 – Replaced De Gea and showed good concentration to deny Paulinho.
Fosu-Mensah 5 – Began well, but looked vulnerable when Zorya countered.
Bailly 6 – Booked. Commanding at the back for United and tackled well.
Smalling 6 – Skipper in place of Rooney and made a good early covering header.
Rojo 5 – Got forward well, but was caught out by Zorya’s pace on the break.
Fellaini 5 – Headed over and lacked the range of passing United needed.
Pogba 5 – Played one decent ball, but failed to grab this game by the neck.
Lingard 6 – Came inside looking for the ball and had a header blocked.
Mata 7 – MOTM. Was an example to his team-mates with this workrate and running.
Rashford 6 – Smashed a drive against the underside of the bar.
Ibrahimovic 6 – The Swede was subdued and had a shot deflected wide before finally getting on the score sheet.
Subs – Rooney (Lingard 67mins) 5, Young (Mata 74mins) 5, Martial (Fosu-Mensah 74mins) 5
Subs not used – Johnstone, Depay, Carrick, Schneiderlin.
Zorya Luhansk
Shevchenko 6; Kamenyuka 5, Sivakov 6, Forster 7, Sobol 6; Grechyshkin 6, Chaykovskiy 6 (Gordiyenko 80mins 5); Karavaev 5, Ljubenovic 6 (Lipartia 76mins 5), Petriak 6; Kulach 6 (Paulinho 60mins 6). Subs not used: Chuvayev, Sukhotskiy, Opanasenko, Checher.
