Manchester United 1 Zorya 0: Zlatan Ibrahimovic header rescues Jose Mourinho side’s sluggish performance
Red Devils had failed to register a shot on target until the Swedish striker scored in the second half
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ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC rescued Manchester United from further Europa League embarrassment with the only goal in a 1-0 win against Ukrainian side Zorya.
Jose Mourinho's side were sloppy throughout and hadn't registered one shot on target before the towering Swede headed in from substitute Wayne Rooney's miscue after 68 minutes.
In a dour first half, Marcus Rashford came closest when his thunderbolt strike cannoned the crossbar after the ball fell to him from a corner.
The visitors offered little going forward but did give Old Trafford a scare when substitute Paulinho forced keeper Sergio Romero into a save with the deadlock yet to be broken.
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FACTS, STATS, GOALS & LOLS
- Zorya Luhansk will go into the history books as the 100th club United have faced in European club competition.
- United have not been in this competition much - this was only the 20th home game in the Europa League - or UEFA Cup as it used to be.
- Zorya are currently second in the Ukranian League but have reached the group stages of his competition for the first time.
- They currently play their 'home games' in Zaporizha - 200 miles from their traditional home which has been hit by civil war.
- However for European ties they travel another 300 miles on top of that and play in Odessa - where they will host United in December.
- Wayne Rooney may have celebrated 12 years since his sensational home debut this week - but he still started the night on the bench until midway through the second half.
- A slip by one of the Israeli assistant referees brought one of the biggest cheers of a dismal first half.
- Old Trafford was plunged into darkness before the game as some of the lights went out on the outside of the stadium.
- Only five fans bought tickets for game via the club in Ukraine - although club officials suggested around 50 were in the away section.
- To be fair, a lot of home fans didn't turn up either - there were a lot of empty red seats around Old Trafford despite the reduced tickets.
SOCIAL SAYS
Man Utd next five fixtures
Oct 2 - Stoke (H) - PL
Oct 17 - Liverpool (A) - PL
Oct 20 - Fenerbache (H) - UEL
Oct 23 - Chelsea (A) - PL
Oct 26 - Man City (H) - EFL Cup
DREAM TEAM RATINGS
Manchester United: Romero 6, Fosu-Mensah 7 (Martial 74, 6) Bailly 7, Smalling 6, Rojo 7, Fellaini 7, Pogba 7, Lingard 6 (Rooney 67, 6), Mata 6 (Young 74, 6), Rashford 6, Ibrahimovic 7
Subs not used: Johnstone, Schneiderlin, Depay, Carrick
Goals: Ibrahimovic (68)
STAR MAN: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
WHAT THEY SAID
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: "It was not an easy game, we played well, created chances but this is a typical game.
"If you want to go through, you need to win the game, we did that. We could have done much more though and I expect much more from the team."
Jose Mourinho: "It was difficult. We had our chances in the first half, we could have scored and it would have been a different match. But we didn't.
"One week, three defeats. One week, three victories. But I was not depressed by the defeats and I am not over the moon with three wins."