Manchester United v PAOK Salonika: Europa League – live | Europa League

56 min: Schwab takes the free kick, a daisy-flattener rather than a daisy-cutter, the ball rolling miserably towards Onana. The keeper is then cheekily stopped from bowling the ball out quickly, and Tissoudali goes into the book.

55 min: Ugarte is booked for cynically nudging Taison from behind, as the Brazilian advances down the inside-right channel. A free kick just right of centre, the best part of 30 yards out.

53 min: … but after all that effort in finally hitting the lead, United nearly immediately give it up. Živković is allowed to stride into the box down the right and whip a low drive into the side netting. He should have hit the target at the very least. PAOK should probably be level in the shortest of orders.

52 min: VAR checks for a foul on Baba, but there’s no way the goal’s being chalked off. Diallo, despite the size difference, eased Baba out of the road with ease, and what a delightful header placed across goal and towards the top left. Fine assist by Fernandes, too.

GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 PAOK (Diallo 50)

49 min: The corner’s worked back to Diallo, whose snapshot is blocked by Camera. A fast-ish start to the half from United, but Kotarski still hasn’t had a save to make.

48 min: Hojlund drives down the left and feeds Dalot on the overlap. Dalot looks for Fernandes in the box but the ball’s hooked out for a corner. The set piece leads to a little pinball, and Casemiro has a whack that is blocked and cleared. But United come again, down the left once more, through Garnacho this time. Another corner is won.

46 min: Space for Mazraoui down the right. He angles a pass into the box for Fernandes, who had unfortunately given up on his run. The crowd groan again.

PAOK get the second half underway. No changes.

Half-time reading. Who was there to save the man who saved Alex Ferguson? Mark Robins, who came this close to winning promotion to the Premier League for Coventry City and taking the club to their second FA Cup final, was surprisingly sent packing today. Football, eh? Bloody hell.

HALF TIME: Manchester United 0-0 PAOK

45 min: There will be one additional first-half minute.

44 min: Camara slips Baba into space down the left. Baba dribbles along the byline and cuts back, hoping to tee up Živković, six yards out. A deflection takes the ball away from the PAOK attacker, and United let out a huge collective sigh of relief.

43 min: Another shot of Van Nistelrooy in his boutique knitwear. I’m pretty sure that’s a gold zip. Perhaps it’s bronze. Or even silver, coloured by the Old Trafford floodlights bouncing off the underside of Ruud’s chin like a buttercup. That reminds me, I need to book an eye test.

41 min: Casemiro curls a cross in from the right, looking for Hojlund. Kędziora heads clear without too much fuss. The PAOK fans continue to provide most of the soundtrack.

39 min: Camara brings down Baba’s left-wing cross on the left-hand edge of the United D. He spins and hits a rising half-volley that Onana does very well to tip over the bar. That was heading in. Nothing comes of the resulting corner, but that’s as close as either side have come to scoring. A superb effort chiselled out of not very much.

37 min: Fernandes slips a pass down the right for Diallo, whose dribble into the box isn’t so confident this time. He runs into the nearest defender and the visitors clear their lines.

35 min: On the touchline, Ruud van Nistelrooy, the glistening gold zip of his roll-neck cardigan swinging gently in the breeze, looks on impassively. There’s not a great deal to get excited about right now.

33 min: The PAOK fans are making a lot of noise right now. United’s not so much. PAOK respond by stroking the ball around the midfield calmly.

31 min: Garnacho bombs down the left and zips a low ball across the face of the six-yard box. Diallo prepares to sidefoot home, only for Baba to nip in and divert the ball out for a corner, from which nothing comes.

29 min: If PAOK are going to do something in attack, it’s most likely coming from Živković on the right. He cuts in from his flank and whistles a shot straight down Onana’s throat.

27 min: Casemiro and Fernandes one-two down the inside-left channel, the former bursting into the box and preparing to shoot. He’s shouldered off the ball by Kędziora. United fans scream for a penalty but the players don’t really bother. The referee is not interested. The right decision this time; the defender simply standing stronger.

25 min: Diallo and Fernandes have a two-on-one situation down the right, but overthink things and eventually the ball dribbles out for a goal kick. United not quite clicking.

23 min: Dalot fluffs another clearance, nearly allowing Tissoudali to break into space down the middle. Casemiro comes across to help his team-mate out of a hole in the no-nonsense style. A few mutterings from the home crowd as Dalot did his thing.

21 min: Tissoudali chases after a flick-on down the left and enters the box. He’s within his rights to shoot, even though he’s faced with a tight angle, because it’s going to take a hell of a threaded pass to find Živković in the centre. He tries the pass anyway. Bad decision.

19 min: United don’t let it get them down. First up, from the corner, Garnacho has a bang from distance. It’s deflected over for another corner, which is sent back down the line to Diallo, whose deep cross is headed goalward by Hojlund. Straight at the keeper, who snaffles, but the hosts are getting closer and closer.

18 min: VAR check over. No penalty. Baba certainly knocked the ball out for a corner, but only after making contact with Diallo. It looked like a penalty all day long, but who knows anything any more?

17 min: Diallo dribbles in from the right again. Baba Rahman challenges. Diallo falls over as the ball pings out for a corner. But is that a penalty? Baba didn’t connect too much with the ball, but certainly did with Diallo. VAR to check.

16 min: Garnacho crosses from the left. Too strong. Goal kick. Both teams are striving for the opener. Full marks for effort, but neither keeper has had any real work to do yet.

15 min: Fernandes delivers to the near post. The busy Živković clears.

14 min: Casemiro advances down the right and loops long for Garnacho at the far stick. Garnacho head-and-shoulders the ball back infield. Off target, but enough to win a corner. Fernandes takes, and that corner leads to take two.

13 min: Now it’s Dalot’s turn to make a mess of a defensive header. He tees up Živković on the right-hand corner of the United box. Živković opens his body and looks for the stunner into the top left, but gets it all wrong. Half a chance, though.

12 min: Kędziora makes a mess of a simple clearing header and nearly lets Dalot in down the middle. The PAOK defender battles hard to rectify his mistake and eventually tidies up.

10 min: The Old Trafford faithful start up a U-NI-TED chant, hoping to get their team going. Diallo responds with a dribble infield from the right, but Colley is on hand to close down the route.

8 min: Yep, thought as much. PAOK spend a bit of time knocking it around. Živković has another look down the right but is forced to turn tail. The visitors quickly finding their feet.

6 min: … but then PAOK launch their first attack. Živković enters the box down the right and cuts back for Camara, who has a dig from the edge of the box. His shot takes a huge deflection off Casemiro, and on another day might have whistled across the startled Onana and into the bottom left, but there’s not enough speed left on the ball for own-goal shenanigans. That’ll give the visitors confidence, you’d have thought.

4 min: Fernandes is already causing problems in the pocket. He nearly feeds Hojlund, then fails to thread a pass through for Mazraoui.

3 min: Garnacho has the opportunity to slip Fernandes into the box down the left. He clumsily overhits the pass. Goal kick.

2 min: … and so both teams begin their quest for a first win in this Europa League campaign. A quiet start on the pitch, but both sets of fans make their beautiful noise.

Manchester United get the ball rolling. They’re kicking towards the Stretford End during this first half.

… but first, a moment of solemn reflection to honour those lost to the floods in Spain. Observed with the utmost respect.

Here come the teams! Manchester United in their famous red shirts and white shorts with slightly-lighter-red flash, PAOK Salonika in their first-choice black and white Notts County / Newcastle United / Juventus [delete according to preference^†] stripes. We’ll be off once coins have been tossed, hands of friendship clasped, corporate anthems played, and pennants swapped.

^{† Other black-and-white-striped clubs are available}

All of the early kick-offs have now finished. A tranche of results that includes a 3-2 defeat for Spurs at Galatasaray, and a resolute 1-1 draw for Rangers at Olympiakos. All of which means that, before United and PAOK pull their boots on, the Europa League Distend-o-Table™ looks like this, both of tonight’s Old Trafford combatants having dropped a couple of places as a result of all that hot action. Ninety minutes coming up to right some wrongs!

Ruud van Nistelrooy speaks to TNT Sports. “Good memories … what is most important is to get the lads back at their best … a lot happened … the results were not good … there was a lot of pressure on them … there is no time for me to make big changes … my relationship with the team is very good … as an assistant manager you are closer to the lads than the manager … so that helps me a lot now … we really got it going together … come on, we have four games together, let’s make the most of it … get all the results we can … confidence is such a big thing in football … it affects performances and style … in the Leicester game we scored four in one half and wow, there’s a great attacking style again … it’s a silly thing, the confidence thing in football … when results come, it is like a million dollars for strikers … the lads have to believe … Rasmus is working hard on his hold-up play … Casemiro and Ugarte can communicate well together … they are in control of the moments we press … they are doing really well and we benefit from it.”

He’s also asked when he expects to hear whether he’ll be staying on under Ruben Amorim … and straight-bats his answer, just as you’d expect him to. “I focus on this and hopefully soon!”

There are a few old friends in the PAOK squad. The most notable for United fans is Shola Shoretire, the 20-year-old winger having joined PAOK in the summer after his Old Trafford contract ran out. He’s on the bench. Baba Rahman, formerly of Chelsea, and Wolves defender Jonny start, while another one-time Pensioner, Tiémoué Bakayoko, is a sub. There’s no room at all for erstwhile Southampton and Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren, though.

Ruud van Nistelrooy’s penultimate starting selection as interim manager of Manchester United sees the beloved former striker make three changes in the wake of the 1-1 draw with Chelsea. Victor Lindelöf and Jonny Evans replace Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martínez at the back, while Amad Diallo comes in for Marcus Rashford up front. All three displaced players are on the bench, alongside Christian Eriksen and Mason Mount, who return from injury.

The teams

Preamble