AZ Alkmaar 0, Manchester United 0
Manchester United failed to register a single shot on target as they stretched their winless away run to 10 matches against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League.
Embed from Getty ImagesThey have also failed to win their last four games in 90 minutes – although they did beat Rochdale on penalties in the Carabao Cup.
Marcus Rashford’s penalty appeal and a Jesse Lingard shot that was inches wide was as close as the Reds got to threatening their Dutch hosts’ goal.
There was no VAR in operation in the Europa League group stage and Reds boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was seething at the ‘blatant’ penalty which was not awarded.
Solskjaer had made eight changes from the side that drew 1-1 with Arsenal on Monday.
Only David De Gea, Victor Lindelof, and Daniel James kept their places in the side and there was a debut start for 19-year-old Brandon Williams at left back as Ashley Young was rested and Paul Pogba’s recently announced foot injury was not risked on the artificial pitch in The Hague.
United lost Lingard to a hamstring injury and had to play out the final minutes with ten men on the plastic pitch which Solskjaer was scathing about prior to kick off.
Lingard, who was earlier omitted from Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad, will probably miss Sunday’s Premier League game at Newcastle.
AZ Alkmaar had the better chances in the game, with striker Myron Boadu having a first half goal ruled out for a clear offside while Oussama Idrissi forced a couple pf saves from De Gea after causing Diogo Dalot no end of problems.
MATCH STATS – AZ Alkmaar 0, Manchester United 0
AZ Alkmaar: Bizot, Sugawara, Vlaar, Wuytens, Wijndal, Midtsjo, Koopmeiners, Stengs, de Wit (Hatzidiakos 87), Idrissi, Boadu
AZ Alkmaar Subs not used: De Boer, Ouwejan, Druijf, Aboukhlal, Clasie, Reijnders
Man Utd: De Gea, Dalot, Lindelof, Rojo, Williams, Fred, Matic, Greenwood (Lingard 77), Mata (McTominay 83), Gomes, James (Rashford 63)
Man Utd Subs not used: Romero, Maguire, Tuanzebe, McTominay, Chong
Booked: Dalot
Referee: Gediminias, Mazeika