CELTA VIGO 0, MANCHESTER UNITED 1
- Marcus Rashford’s free kick hands Manchester United a first leg lead and away goal in the 67th minute
- Ashley Young limps off with suspected hamstring injury minutes after coming on
- Rashford hobbles off in late stages
Marcus Rashford’s second half free kick handed Manchester United an away goal against Celta Vigo as they gratefully took a slim lead back to Old Trafford next week after it seemed like another toothless display was on the cards.
Jose Mourinho had already declared that he would prioritise the Europa League and opted for six changes from the line-up that drew with Swansea on Sunday.
Out went David De Gea, Ashley Young, Luke Shaw, Michael Carrick, Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney – they were replaced by Sergio Romero, Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian, Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marouane Fellaini.
For much of this match both sides traded blows but the Reds were superior and carved out the better chances although the match seemed to follow an all too familiar script with Celta Vigo’s goal living a charmed life.
United had three great chances to take the lead in the first half but couldn’t make the crucial breakthrough in an end-to-end contest which began to look increasingly like Groundhog Day for Jose Mourinho’s men until the final quarter of the game when Marcus Rashford’s 67th minute free kick handed a precious away goal to the Reds.
Celta Vigo had a golden chance to open the scoring after 12 minutes when Daniel Wass headed well wide after creating space at the back post for himself to connect with Nemanja Radoja’s cross.
United had to be wary of the threat from the enthusiastic home side but Rashford forced a save from Sergio Alvarez with a dipping shot.
Alvarez saved again from Mkhitaryan with his legs after Pogba put him through while Rashford put Jesse Lingard clean through but the attacker was denied by Alvarez who was grateful for the United man’s poor shot.
Celta Vigo had hardly threatened the United goal, with Pione Sisto’s chance easy to save for Sergio Romero as their front-men Iago Aspas and John Guidetti found it hard to get any change from the United defence with just half chances to feed on.
The home side stayed in the game, however, and Sergio Romero was called into action in the second half when he touched over a deflected shot by Sisto just before the hour mark.
The breakthrough finally came in the 67th minute when Marcus Rashford put the Reds into the lead when he curled a free kick beyond the wrong-footed Alvarez when it looked for all the world like Daley Blind would be taking the set piece.
It was Rashford’s 11th strike of the season, and his first ever goal scored from outside the area out of 19 career goals for the Reds.
Jesse Lingard blazed wide as United tried to double their advantage but the Reds suffered another injury blow in their luckless season when substitute Ashley Young had to go off minutes after coming on with a hamstring injury.
And Mourinho could face a further selection headache after Rashford limped off in the closing stages.