Manchester United prepare for Chelsea FA Cup tie with solid display in Europa League draw in Rostov

Aleksandr Bukharov celebrates his equaliser for Rostov
REUTERS
James Benge10 March 2017

Manchester United warmed up for their FA Cup quarter-final with Chelsea with a largely solid display in a 1-1 draw in Rostov.

United’s Europa League last-16 tie was played on a dreadful pitch at the Olimp-2 stadium in southern Russia and the English visitors struggled for any fluency despite Jose Mourinho naming a strong side.

It was also notable that Mourinho fielded a back three, a rarity in the Portuguese manager’s career, perhaps with an eye on countering Chelsea’s 3-4-3 system at Stamford Bridge on Monday night.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave the visitors the lead on 35 minutes, tapping home Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s from close range to bring a flowing move to an end.

The goal looked like being enough for United against a struggling Rostov but eight minutes into the second half the Russian side were level, Aleksandr Bukharov capitalising on muddled defending of a long ball before volleying past Sergio Romero.

Rostov could have had more, with Aleksandr Erokhin driving just wide with a fizzing effort from inside the area, whilst Marouane Fellaini wasted a chance at the death as he failed to direct a header on target. United, however, will still be confident of progress to the quarter-finals thanks to their away goal and relieved to have made it through 90 minutes on a dreadful pitch with no major injuries.

United will play the second leg of the tie at Old Trafford next Thursday.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in