Manchester United pegged back by Rostov but Mkhitaryan claims away goal

A result that included an invaluable away goal gives Manchester United every chance of a last-eight berth and smelling the Europa League glory José Mourinho has spoken of. This was a niggly encounter but United ended it with mission accomplished, ensuring Rostov will have to produce the best result of their 87-year history to knock United out.

Mourinho made seven changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Bournemouth at the weekend and only Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic survived.

The charm offensive from Russia’s seventh-placed club had the 238 travelling fans furnished with blankets to keep them warm on an evening in which a biting wind came in off the Don River.

Beforehand Mourinho offered dismay at the Olimp-2 surface. Afterwards Henrikh Mkhitaryan, United’s scorer, said: “We have tried to win, we have played as good as we could on this pitch. I do not want to speak about the pitch because it was awful for both. For those watching it was not a very interesting game.”

Yet after the match started the United manager’s view was to be more than vindicated: the pitch was a tricky combination of high bounce, uneven turf and loose soil that could scatter whenever a pass was made.

Ivan Daniliants, Rostov’s head coach, stated it would be a “problem” and his side set out focusing on how to profit from this. The opening exchanges featured a series of aerial balls aimed at Chris Smalling, Jones and Rojo, United’s three centre-backs in Mourinho’s 3-5-2.

Clumsy challenges were also on show as Jones was hit by Aleksandr Bukharov and Vladimir Granat was hurt when Mkhitaryan went for a cross in Rostov’s area. This caused the defender’s withdrawal – for Denis Terentyev – and a little later Mkhitaryan drew a booking for hanging an arm on to Fedor Kudryashov. It caused fellow central defender César Navas to have a word with the Armenian which in turn brought Ibrahimovic on to the scene.

All of this illustrated the ill-tempered start and more came when the home captain, Aleksandr Gatskan, was shown a yellow card by Felix Zwayer for taking out Ibrahimovic.

As the half-hour approached there had not been much action. Rojo blocked a Bukharov cross and, when Timofei Kalachev swung the subsequent corner in from the left, Sergio Romero collected this cleanly. For United Pogba had earlier fashioned an air shot from close to Nikita Medvedev’s goal.

Now, though, the visitors scored and this was worth the 35-minute wait. A fluid move began when Pogba turned infield and found Jones. He swept the ball to Marouane Fellaini and the Belgian’s first touch was a sweet bit of chest control that took him past a marker. When he recycled possession to Ibrahimovic, the Swede’s pass to Mkhitaryan allowed the No22 to beat Medvedev with ease.

This had Mourinho punching the air to celebrate the player’s seventh goal of the season and third in the competition.

Mourinho and his men, then, could be pleased with a fine opening 45 minutes in front of a raucous home crowd who had packed out the 15,000-seat venue. The challenge now was to leave with the victory and set up Thursday’s return.

Ibrahimovic shot wildly early in the second half and then, on 53 minutes, the hosts equalised. Kalachev chipped the ball in from a central area and Bukharov slipped in behind Jones and Smalling and gave Romero no chance with a smart finish. This sent the Rostov support delirious and raised the volume up to 11 again.

When Aleksandr Erokhin raced into United’s area and was challenged by Smalling he went down but, though the home crowd bayed for a penalty, Zwayer indicated the captain took the ball and nothing was awarded.

Moments later Erokhin was handed a clear chance to give Rostov the lead but all he could manage was a toe poke that started wide of Romero’s right post and kept on going in that direction. Next up was a rare United corner taken by Daley Blind which met Fellaini’s head but went into Medvedev’s hands.

Mourinho’s first substitution was to replace Mkhitaryan with Anthony Martial with 68 minutes gone. Given the former’s earlier booking and his recent hamstring injury, this may have been to protect a player who has become pivotal to the Portuguese.