Feyenoord, Fenerbahce, Zorya, St-Étienne, Rostov, Anderlecht and now Celta Vigo. Against their seventh different opponent from a seventh country Manchester United’s challenge was to finally produce the signature display that had eluded them on their travels.
Do so in this Europa League semi-final first leg and José Mourinho’s side would make themselves firm favourites to reach the final at Solna’s Friends Arena in Stockholm later in May.
Of those six previous away matches only two were won – at Zorya (2-0) and St-Étienne (1-0). There were 1-1 draws with Anderlecht and Rostov, while two were losses – 1-0 to Feyenoord and 2-1 at Fenerbahce.
Even when winning United failed to steamroller the opposition and so send a message to the rest of the competition. The prime reason here was their sheer lack of goals on the road: an average of one per outing naturally made the victories tight.
This finishing deficit has provoked one of Mourinho’s favourite ongoing beefs: the lack of ruthlessness of his attackers. In Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard the Portuguese started three of his named culprits. A fourth, Anthony Martial, came off the bench late on.
Following the draw at Anderlecht in the previous round Mourinho criticised the quartet and included Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored 28 goals before his season-ending injury, stating United defenders could be “upset” with the profligacy. While the Swede was included because of a disappointing night in Belgium, the others have been regular targets of their manager’s ire.
Mourinho believes their return is just not good enough. Mkhitaryan has scored 10 times, of which five are in this competition. Going into this semi-final, Rashford had the same total, with one Europa League strike. Two of Lingard’s five were in Europe, and Martial’s return counted for one of his eight.
Beforehand Mourinho laid out what he expected. “I want to see confidence. I want to see the team playing to win but feeling the game,” he said. “Fight for a result that allows us to go at them in the second leg and be in the final. It’s been a long road. We want to go to the final. We want to create danger here, we don’t want to come and just defend.”
On a warm night in Galicia, there was early encouragement for Mourinho. His 4-3-3 had Lingard and Mkhitaryan splitting Rashford up front. Slick interplay between the trio closed with a fierce Rashford effort that drew a sharp save from Sergio Álvarez.
This came after United soaked up Vigo pressure and quietened a raucous home support. It also proved a rare moment of goal-threat as the visitors were again to spurn copious chances.
For a passage Mourinho’s midfield trio of Paul Pogba, Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera failed to get hold of the ball and so Celta turned United to leave the front three bystanders. That caused Sergio Romero to bypass midfield and lump a ball towards Rashford but this ceded possession and drew Mourinho out into the technical area to order his goalkeeper to calm down.
The manager’s charge of a lack of ruthlessness also concerns the inability to thread a killer final pass and an unwanted illustration of this came as half-time neared. Pogba broke at speed and found Mkhitaryan but, with Rashford and Lingard to either side, his pass to the latter was hit carelessly awry.
The Armenian’s answer to Mourinho’s post-Anderlecht criticism was to score in the return at Old Trafford. What his manager demands, however, is game-in, game-out consistency. Mkhitaryan has not scored since and he showed why when put clear by Pogba. The Frenchman has mentioned how he might draw less criticism if some of his passes became assists and so he was surely frustrated when Mkhitaryan’s left-foot effort went straight at Álvarez.
Next in this undesired repeat-tale of spurned chances was Lingard as Rashford created space for him but the finish was weak.
If Mourinho really wanted to press for the win the poser was how long he could see the forwards miss chances before making a change. Following a rousing play of the A-team theme tune at the break, the second half began with United’s XI intact. The easy joke to make was how the Lingard-Rashford-Mkhitaryan axis were performing like B-listers. Pogba, who impressed, maybe thought so, as he decided to take aim himself, banging a 25-yarder at Álvarez that at least kept the keeper honest.
Beyond Martial, who Mourinho is yet to be convinced by, his attacking options were Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney and Ashley Young. As the 70 minute-mark approached his faith was repaid as Rashford bent home a sublime free-kick.
United kept hunting for their third victory in 23 matches on Spanish soil in European competition and Rashford’s intervention meant they achieved just that. Again, this was not a convincing win but it is emphatically advantage United going into the second leg.
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