Half time: Lask 0-1 Manchester United
45+2 min: One last half-hearted attack from Lask, which ends when Renner’s pass towards Michorl runs out of play, and that’s it!
44 mins: Chance! United win a corner on the right and Maguire rises highest in the middle but heads wide!
42 mins: James bursts towards the penalty area but instead of shooting he passes to a surprised Ighalo, who then overhits a layoff to Fernandes, who therefore has to hurry his shot, which is thus not up to much.
40 mins: Chance for Lask! A cross from the right ends up at the feet of Frieser, beyond the far post, who controls and then shoots back across goal. It might have gone in, but Bailly got a foot in the way to make sure it didn’t.
38 mins: Now Klauss goes in the book. He and Fred both went for the same waist-high ball; Klauss got there first, but then kicked Fred in the stomach in his follow-through.
37 mins: Klauss goes down over Bailly’s outstretched leg. I’m not sure what Bailly was thinking sticking his leg out like that, but Klauss clearly didn’t even touch it. The referee gives the free-kick but not a booking, and Lask make nothing of the set piece.
33 mins: Trauner gets booked for hitting Ighalo in the face with a swinging left arm. Clearly entirely accidental, but the Nigerian seems to be quite sore.
28 mins: Fernandes tries a pass to James, hits it into a defender, collects the rebound and this time chips it to Ighalo, who controls well, juggles the ball a bit and then belts in a left-footed shot from the edge of the box that flies into the top left corner, with Schlager leaden-footed. That is an absolutely superb goal.
GOAL! Lask 0-1 Manchester United (Ighalo, 28 mins)
Cowabunga! That’s a cracker from Ighalo!
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26 mins: Mata plays a lovely first-time pass for James to run onto on the left. He’s well defended by Reiter, though, and nothing comes from it.
24 mins: And another chance! The corner is sent towards the near post, where McTominay wins the header only for the ball to go wide.
24 mins: Chance! United zip the ball about for a while, ending with Mata passing to James, who from the edge of the area curls a low shot towards the far corner that Schlager turns round the post!
21 mins: A nice move from Lask, who work a free-kick to Michorl on the left, but his cross flashes across goal and out the other side.
18 mins: Ighalo, on the byline to the right of the penalty area, picks out a decent pass to Mata, but he misses his kick completely. Then Shaw gets down the left and crosses towards Ighalo, and the keeper pushes it away from him but straight to Mata, whose attempt to sidefoot past a couple of defenders doesn’t make it past the couple of defenders.
16 mins: United aren’t completely dominating this. I’m sure they’ve had the majority of the possession, but it’s not totally overwhelming and Lask have shown they can threaten on the counter.
13 mins: After a throw-in Klauss sprints down the right, comfortably outpacing Maguire, but then he goes down a little too eagerly as the chasing Maguire leans an arm into him and the referee is unimpressed.
8 mins: An excellent ball into the area from Bruno Fernandes, picking out Mata beyond the far post, but his cushioned volley back across goal doesn’t pick out anyone.
8 mins: United have had attacks curtailed by offside calls a couple of times already, Ighalo the latest to be caught out.
6 mins: Lask win a free-kick, wide on the right, and send it over the penalty area and out of play.
4 mins: The first shot of the match comes from the left foot of Fred, and about 25 yards out. It flies well over the bar.
1 min: Peeeeep! United, dressed head to toe in black (Lask are entirely clad in white: it’s one for the purists, this) get the game under way.
They just observed what you might call a minute’s silence (it lasted about 15 seconds), which seems a strange thing to do in an almost empty stadium.
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Right then. The anthem has been played. The players haven’t shaken hands, bumped fists, tapped elbows or even nodded politely at each other, they just stood in a line, and then broke off and walked away.
Some fans appear to have sneaked into the ground. Perhaps a couple of hundred of them or so are sitting in the stands.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had a pre-match chat:
The team’s just prepared as normal, obviously knowing that it was up in the air. But the boys have been very good, they’re focusing, and they’ve not asked me one question about whether it’s going to be on or not. There’s a couple of forced changes, and of course other players have shown they’re capable of playing for us, and some of it is tactics for this game and this opposition.
I think it’s going to be a tough game physically. [Lask are] very direct, very hard-working. Strong. They’ve got a way of playing that they’re used to. Very good at set plays. We’re ready for them.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but I suppose this bloke couldn’t find a face mask and wasn’t very good at making his own.
The teams!
And here are the teams in full:
Lask: Schlager, Ramsebner, Trauner, Ranftl, Reiter, Holland, Michorl, Renner, Tetteh, Klauss, Frieser. Subs: Balic, Muller, Wostry, Haudum, Raguz, Sabitzer, Gebauer.
Manchester United: Romero, Williams, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Mata, Bruno Fernandes, James, Ighalo. Subs: De Gea, Lindelof, Andreas Pereira, Greenwood, Matic, Tuanzebe, Chong.
Referee: Artur Soraes Dias (Portugal).
Here’s the United team. You will notice that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made five changes, swapping Sergio Romero for David De Gea in goal, and naming Eric Bailly, Scott McTominay, Juan Mata and Odion Ighalo in his starting XI:
Preamble
Hello world!
Tonight/this evening/morning/whatever we will watch a game of football. Enjoy this sensation, for we might not have it for long. It will anyway be somewhat subdued, with no fans permitted inside the Linzer Stadion, but there will be 22 top-level (open to debate) footballers kicking a ball around, and that’s something to be cherished. United have a few injuries, as ever, but they do have the free-scoring (in cup competitions) Odion Ighalo in their starting line-up and an excellent record against Austrian teams: they have won their last six such games, and have an overall record of P8 W7 D1 L0.
Anyway, let’s crack on. I’ll have the teams for you in just a moment, and until then here’s an excellent article about Lask by Marcus Christenson:
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