Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores a goal for Manchester United for their first win in Europa League.
Although for Jose Mourinho this competition is irrelevant, Ibrahimovic saves his team from humiliation against Zorya. He scored the goal in the 69th minute of the match.
There were four different starters for the English team than in a 4-1 victory against Leicester four days ago. Sergio Romero, Marouane Fellaini, Marcos Rojo, Tim Fosu-Mensah all started in the game against Zorya, although they were on a bench against Leicester. Furthermore, this was Wayne Rooney’s second consecutive game that he didn’t start.
Although Rooney was out, Manchester was still a good attacking team lead by Ibrahimovic. Moreover, players like Mata and Rushford are always dangerous.
Although Zorya’s reputation on the world stage is not high, they managed to finish fourth in Ukraine. They were giving their best, and we could see that in a match against Fenerbahce when they bore draw. On the other hand, Manchester lost to Feyenoord in their first game.
United was in total control of the match against Zorya, but their first chance for a goal was when Rashford hit the bar in the 20th minute.
Mourinho and Yuriy Vernydub, the two coaches, had an argument after Ivan Petriak dived to win a free-kick. Although Manchester was dominant early in the game, they couldn’t hit the net and take the lead.
This match didn’t draw many soccer fans and the seats were empty, so the Home team didn’t get much support from the crowd in that match. This comes as no surprise since Mourinho had stated that Europa League was an irrelevant competition for his team.
Jesse Lingard and Fellaini also had a chance to score a goal but their headers were either blocked or went over the goal.
Zorya too created a chance after the break but, Oleksandr Karavaev’s cross was too strong for Zeljko Ljubenovic.
Zorya showed that they were not scared against a better rival and they lurked their chances in counter-attacks. For the visitors, Paulinho had a chance to score, but Sergio Romero, the goalkeeper dived at full stretch and stopped the ball. Rooney entered the game after this opportunity.
The team from Manchester finally created a good chance for a goal. After a poor shot from Fosu-Mensah, the ball bounced and found its way to Zlatan, who hit the target with the header.
With this victory, Manchester avoided the humiliation of being held at home by Zorya. They will face Stoke in their next match on Sunday.
