Henrikh Mkhitaryan returned to the line-up for Manchester United tonight and he provided the club’s only scoring. United went to Russia to take on FC Rostov in the Europa League round of 16 and came away with a 1-1 draw. Although obviously not the optimal result, they do have a crucial away goal now, which will be advantageous towards advancing.
Here you can see the footage of the Mkhitaryan brace:
Goal #Mkhitaryan 1-0#ROSMUN pic.twitter.com/Jjbk6zgWYE
— Football Live (@LiveStream_7) March 9, 2017
United Manager Jose Mourinho was asked about the status of Mkhitaryan in detail during his press briefing yesterday, but failed to say that he would be available.
Obviously, he was just being coy, and employing some tactical strategy there. The return of Mkhitaryan was the main story, of the uplifting variety anyway, present in today’s result. Mourinho said that should the Red Devils advance beyond this round in the Europa League and reach the final eight, he shall make this competition more of a priority, and it appears that they are indeed on their way now. That’s good news for United as Europa League is most likely their best and most plausible route back into the real tournament of Europe.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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