close
close

Porto vs Manchester United: Europa League – live | Europa League

Porto vs Manchester United: Europa League – live | Europa League

Important events

Teams complete

postage (probably 4-3-3) Costa; Mario, Pedro, Perez, Moura; Varela, Eustaquio, Gonzalez; Pepe, Omorodion, Galeno.

Substitutes: Ramos, Fernandes, Otavio, Djalo, Grujic, Vieira, Franco, Mora, Sousa, Jaime, Borges, Gul, Namaso.

Manchester United (probably 4-2-3-1) Onana; Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot; Casemiro, Eriksen; Amad, Fernandes, Rashford; Hojlund.

Substitutes: Bayindir, Heaton, Lindelof, Maguire, Evans, Collyer, Gore, Ugarte, Antony, Garnacho, Zirkzee.

share

Updated at

The teams in brief: Hojlund starts

Rasmus Hojlund, the only bright spot for United in the Champions League last autumn, is making his first start of the season. Erik ten Hag rotates his midfield and replaces Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo with… Casemiro and Christian Eriksen. The old company.

share

preamble

Good evening everyone and welcome to the latest episode of a popular soap opera. This week, Bruno and Diogo return home to find themselves, Erik tries to get out of prison again, and Sir Jim wonders if he's made a terrible mistake. Yes, it's Desolation Street.

Or maybe it's the path to salvation. Erik ten Hag's Man United have what it takes to bounce back from a surprise win – after all, they've had plenty of practice. And this game seems to be an opportunity to play on the counterattack, which often suits them. Porto have a home record this season that United fans still remember: played four times, won four times. The Opta algorithm gives them a 52% chance of winning tonight compared to United's 23%.

Postage has two additional incentives. After the 2-3 defeat at Bodo/Glimt last week, they are even further down the Europa League mega table than United. And they still have a score to settle because the last time they hosted United, in the second leg of a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford, the tie was decided by a screamer from Cristiano Ronaldo. That was a Champions League quarter-final in 2008/09. Those were the days.

Kick-off is at 8pm BST and I will be back with the teams soon.

share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *