Key events
21 min: Tissoudali chases after a flick-on down the left and enters the box. He’s within his rights to shoot, even though he’s faced with a tight angle, because it’s going to take a hell of a threaded pass to find Živković in the centre. He tries the pass anyway. Bad decision.
19 min: United don’t let it get them down. First up, from the corner, Garnacho has a bang from distance. It’s deflected over for another corner, which is sent back down the line to Diallo, whose deep cross is headed goalward by Hojlund. Straight at the keeper, who snaffles, but the hosts are getting closer and closer.
18 min: VAR check over. No penalty. Baba certainly knocked the ball out for a corner, but only after making contact with Diallo. It looked like a penalty all day long, but who knows anything any more?
17 min: Diallo dribbles in from the right again. Baba Rahman challenges. Diallo falls over as the ball pings out for a corner. But is that a penalty? Baba didn’t connect too much with the ball, but certainly did with Diallo. VAR to check.
16 min: Garnacho crosses from the left. Too strong. Goal kick. Both teams are striving for the opener. Full marks for effort, but neither keeper has had any real work to do yet.
15 min: Fernandes delivers to the near post. The busy Živković clears.
14 min: Casemiro advances down the right and loops long for Garnacho at the far stick. Garnacho head-and-shoulders the ball back infield. Off target, but enough to win a corner. Fernandes takes, and that corner leads to take two.
13 min: Now it’s Dalot’s turn to make a mess of a defensive header. He tees up Živković on the right-hand corner of the United box. Živković opens his body and looks for the stunner into the top left, but gets it all wrong. Half a chance, though.
12 min: Kędziora makes a mess of a simple clearing header and nearly lets Dalot in down the middle. The PAOK defender battles hard to rectify his mistake and eventually tidies up.
10 min: The Old Trafford faithful start up a U-NI-TED chant, hoping to get their team going. Diallo responds with a dribble infield from the right, but Colley is on hand to close down the route.
8 min: Yep, thought as much. PAOK spend a bit of time knocking it around. Živković has another look down the right but is forced to turn tail. The visitors quickly finding their feet.
6 min: … but then PAOK launch their first attack. Živković enters the box down the right and cuts back for Camara, who has a dig from the edge of the box. His shot takes a huge deflection off Casemiro, and on another day might have whistled across the startled Onana and into the bottom left, but there’s not enough speed left on the ball for own-goal shenanigans. That’ll give the visitors confidence, you’d have thought.
4 min: Fernandes is already causing problems in the pocket. He nearly feeds Hojlund, then fails to thread a pass through for Mazraoui.
3 min: Garnacho has the opportunity to slip Fernandes into the box down the left. He clumsily overhits the pass. Goal kick.
2 min: … and so both teams begin their quest for a first win in this Europa League campaign. A quiet start on the pitch, but both sets of fans make their beautiful noise.
Manchester United get the ball rolling. They’re kicking towards the Stretford End during this first half.
… but first, a moment of solemn reflection to honour those lost to the floods in Spain. Observed with the utmost respect.
Here come the teams! Manchester United in their famous red shirts and white shorts with slightly-lighter-red flash, PAOK Salonika in their first-choice black and white Notts County / Newcastle United / Juventus [delete according to preference†] stripes. We’ll be off once coins have been tossed, hands of friendship clasped, corporate anthems played, and pennants swapped.
† Other black-and-white-striped clubs are available
All of the early kick-offs have now finished. A tranche of results that includes a 3-2 defeat for Spurs at Galatasaray, and a resolute 1-1 draw for Rangers at Olympiakos. All of which means that, before United and PAOK pull their boots on, the Europa League Distend-o-Table™ looks like this, both of tonight’s Old Trafford combatants having dropped a couple of places as a result of all that hot action. Ninety minutes coming up to right some wrongs!
Ruud van Nistelrooy speaks to TNT Sports. “Good memories … what is most important is to get the lads back at their best … a lot happened … the results were not good … there was a lot of pressure on them … there is no time for me to make big changes … my relationship with the team is very good … as an assistant manager you are closer to the lads than the manager … so that helps me a lot now … we really got it going together … come on, we have four games together, let’s make the most of it … get all the results we can … confidence is such a big thing in football … it affects performances and style … in the Leicester game we scored four in one half and wow, there’s a great attacking style again … it’s a silly thing, the confidence thing in football … when results come, it is like a million dollars for strikers … the lads have to believe … Rasmus is working hard on his hold-up play … Casemiro and Ugarte can communicate well together … they are in control of the moments we press … they are doing really well and we benefit from it.”
He’s also asked when he expects to hear whether he’ll be staying on under Ruben Amorim … and straight-bats his answer, just as you’d expect him to. “I focus on this and hopefully soon!”
There are a few old friends in the PAOK squad. The most notable for United fans is Shola Shoretire, the 20-year-old winger having joined PAOK in the summer after his Old Trafford contract ran out. He’s on the bench. Baba Rahman, formerly of Chelsea, and Wolves defender Jonny start, while another one-time Pensioner, Tiémoué Bakayoko, is a sub. There’s no room at all for erstwhile Southampton and Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren, though.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s penultimate starting selection as interim manager of Manchester United sees the beloved former striker make three changes in the wake of the 1-1 draw with Chelsea. Victor Lindelöf and Jonny Evans replace Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martínez at the back, while Amad Diallo comes in for Marcus Rashford up front. All three displaced players are on the bench, alongside Christian Eriksen and Mason Mount, who return from injury.
The teams
Man Utd: Onana, Mazraoui, Lindelof, Evans, Dalot, Ugarte, Casemiro, Diallo, Fernandes, Garnacho, Hojlund.
Subs: Bayindir, Heaton, de Ligt, Martinez, Mount, Rashford, Zirkzee, Eriksen, Antony, Wheatley, Amass, Fitzgerald.
PAOK: Kotarski, Jonny Otto, Kedziora, Colley, Baba, Ozdoev, Schwab, Zivkovic, Camara, Taison, Tissoudali.
Subs: Monastirlis, Balomenos, Michailidis, Bakayoko, Chalov, Sastre, Thymianis, Shoretire, Thomas Llamas, Despodov.
Referee: Radu Petrescu (Romania).
Preamble
Manchester United have already had one big European victory to celebrate this week. You know the one. You know why. It’s not much of a leap.
That’s not to say they couldn’t do with an actual win of their very own, though. United are currently 22nd in the Europa League megatable, after draws of varying degrees of ropiness against Twente, Porto and Fenerbahce. The feelgood factor might be back at Old Trafford in the wake of Erik ten Hag’s dismissal and Ruben Amorim’s impending arrival, but that won’t stop the mood momentarily descending again should United fail to see off the Panthessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans, who may be the reigning Greek champions but are currently 30th in the Europa League table after two losses and a draw; have only won three of their last nine matches in all competitions, losing four; and are 190th in this season’s official Uefa rankings, a full 143 places below their esteemed hosts†. Having said all that, United can’t take anything for granted, given their own shocking form: just two wins in their last ten in all competitions. They’re hot favourites tonight, but then we’ve said that before. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!
† For the record, the full Uefa coefficients are a much more healthy 49 and 15 respectively.
