Manchester United vs Zorya as it happened: Zlatan Ibrahimovic spares Jose Mourinho's blushes
Follow live coverage of Thursday's clash at Old Trafford
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Your support makes all the difference.Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Thursday’s Europa League clash between Manchester United and Zorya Luhansk.
Manchester United vs Zorya Luhansk
Kick-off: 8.05pm
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Follow minute-by-minute updates with our live blog below…
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Thursday's Europa League fixtures
6.00pm kick-offs
Gabala vs Mainz
Astana vs Young Boys
Zurich vs Osmanlispor
Schallke 04 vs Red Bull
Hapoe Be'er Sheva vs Southampton
Liberec vs PAOK
Fiorentina vs Qarabag
Steaua Bucharest vs Villarreal
Krasnador vs Nice
Ajax vs Standard Liege
Gent vs Konyaspor
Shakhtar vs Braga
Celta Vigo vs Panathinaikos
Sparta Prague vs Internazionale
8.05pm kick-offs
Genk vs Sassuolo
Manchester United vs Zorya Luhansk
Olympiakos vs Apoel Nicosia
Saint-Etienne vs Anderlecht
Dundalk vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Fenerbahce vs Feyenoord
Athletic Bilbao vs Rapid Wien
Austria Wien vs Viktoria Plzen
Roma vs Astra Giurgiu
Zenit vs AZ Alkmaar
Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Thursday’s Europa League clash between Manchester United and Zorya Luhansk.
After a mini-wobble earlier this month, Jose Mourinho’s side got back on track at the weekend with a resounding 4-1 win over defending Premier League champions Leicester City.
Wayne Rooney was left out of the starting line-up for the visit of the Foxes and could miss out once again for Zorya Luhank’s trip to Old Trafford.
The Ukrainian Premier League side, who currently sit second in their domestic league, are something of an unknown quantity to many, but they drew with Fenerbahce in their opening Europa League group game.
United, of course, lost to Feyenoord a fortnight ago, with a dour display at De Kuip. Can they pick up routine win against the lowest-ranked team in Group A tonight?
Team news
Manchester United: Romero; Fosu-Mensah, Bailly, Smalling, Rojo; Fellaini, Pogba; Lingard, Mata, Rashford; Ibrahimovic.
Substitutes: Johnstone, Carrick, Schneiderlin, Young, Martial, Depay, Rooney.
Zorya Luhansk: Shevchenko; Sivakov, Chayovskiy, Kamenyuka, Petriak, Rafael, Karavaev, Ljubenovic, Grechyshkin, Sobol.
Substitutes: Chuvayev, Sukhotskiy, Gordiyenko, Lipartia, Paulinho, Opanasenko, Checher.
After being dropped for last weekend’s Premier League victory over Leicester City, it had been had been expected that Wayne Rooney would make his return for tonight’s fixture Europa League clash.
But according to manger Jose Mourinho, the 30-year-old has picked up a back injury which has kept him out of the starting team. Not sure if we believe that one…
Mourinho said: "I was completely convinced to play with him from the beginning [on Thursday] but with his situation in the last couple of days I am not sure.
"With the situation you [the media] create for him, he really can't afford to have a performance that is not really good. I am here to protect him and not put him in difficult situations."
Jose Mourinho speaks ahead of the game
Mourinho has said that although he wants to rotate from time-to-time, he admitted that "we want to keep that dynamic... sometimes we don’t want to lose that organisation we have". The manager also remarked that, as expected, De Gea has been rested. He added that Romero "deserves" his start and is an "amazing guy". Kind words from the Portuguese. Bless.
10 min: It's very much all United as the ball zips about the home side's midfield in a neat triangle before Pogba attempts a dinked lob over the top. Rashford races to meet it but Sivakov rises to get his head to it and clears the danger.
13 min: Lovely build-up from the home side as Mata, positioned on the edge of the visitors' box, attempts to flick through Lingard. He dashes to meet it but he can't muscle his way past the Zorya defence and the opposition grab hold of possession to cut the attack dead.
20 min: What a striker from Rashford! The ball is whipped in from the left and finds Bailly who flicks the ball backwards to the edge of the box. The England youngster is there in anticipation and catches the ball sweetly on the half volley with his right foot. It thunders against the underside of the cross bar, shots downwards but bounces out away from goal. Fantastic effort and United's closest chance so far.