Manchester United 5 0 LASK Match Report – Rout for Devils

Categories: Football | Published by: AC

13/03/2020

2019-20 Europa League Round of 16 clash – 1st leg review – Raiffeisen Arena – Thursday, 12 March 2020

Manchester United 5 0 LASK

Manchester United are 7/2 (General) with UK Bookmakers to Win Europa League 2020 as of 13/03/2020.

Manchester United played to near empty stands in their visit to Austria after 20 years when they thrashed LASK 0-5 in the 1st leg of a Round of 16 Europa League clash.

The visitors got off to a perfect start at the Raiffeisen Arena with Odion Ighalo's superb goal in the 28th minute.

United found the breakthrough when the 30-year old Nigerian striker cleverly worked his way into some space inside the box from a Bruno Fernandes delivery and fired one off the bar.

The Red Devils could have gone ahead even before that when Daniel James and Juan Mata came close to scoring. Ighalo had a hand in the second goal too, supplying the ball to James with the winger cutting inside and driving a right-foot effort into the bottom left corner in the 58th minute of play.

Juan Mata scored the third from an incisive pass from Fred when the Spaniard slotted one past a hapless Alexander Schlager.

It was 0-3 for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men in the 82nd minute.

More was to come as substitutes Mason Greenwood and Andreas Pereira deepend the rout when they added a fourth and fifth in injury time.

The 0-5 score line was a deserving one for the dominant display United put up while maintaining their record of never having lost to Austrian opposition in European competition.

This was another United performance that was underscored by the brilliance of their new acquisition, Bruno Fernandes.

The Portugal midfielder made more key passes than any other player on the pitch (six in all) and set the tone for their attacking play before he was withdrawn in the 78th minute.

Besides his quality in possession, Fernandes has also provided dynamism within the group owing to his demanding nature.

Another player to have benefited with the arrival of Fernandes is Fred who had the best pass completion rate (87%) of any midfielder in the Linz game.

LASK's adventurous 3-4-3 formation has helped them to 12 wins from their last 14 domestic league fixtures and provided the backdrop for six unbeaten games in the Europa League, but they found it difficult to cope up with United's class.

Moreover, they were clearly disadvantaged by the absence of home supporters thanks to all-pervading corona virus scare.

LASK failed to register a single shot on target with Rene Renner's wild left-footed attempt 5 minutes before the break being their only noticable effort in Thursday night’s outing.

LASK starting line-up – (3-4-3): Alexander Schlager (goal); Christian Ramsebner, Gernot Trauner, Reinhold Ranftl; Dominik Reiter, James Holland, Peter Michorl, Rene Renner; Samuel Tetteh, Joao Klauss, Dominik Freiser.

Substitutes – Thomas Gebauer, Markus Wostry, Stefan Haudum, Valentino Muller, Thomas Sabitzer, Husein Balic, Marko Raguz.

Manchester United starting line-up – (4-2-3-1): Sergio Romero (goal); Brandon Williams, Eric Bailly, Harry Maguire (captain), Luke Shaw; Fred, Scott McTominay; Juan Mata, Bruno Fernandes, Daniel James; Odion Ighalo.

Substitutes – David de Gea, Victor Lindelof, Axel Tuanzebe, Andreas Pereira, Nemanja Matic, Tatith Chong, Mason Greenwood.