Man United vs Zorya Luhansk- Preview & Predicted Line-Up & Prediction

Man United vs Zorya Luhansk- Preview & Predicted Line-Up & Prediction

Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United will be facing Ukraine’s Zorya Luhansk for the very first time on Thursday evening at Old Trafford kicking off at 20.05. This will be the third Ukrainian side that Manchester United have met in Europe, After having pitted their witts in previous campaigns against both Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk where they went on to win four of the six meetings along with two ties, now United will face their third Ukrainian side in the form of Zorya Luhansk.

Like most Ukrainian sides Zorya possess a number of highly skilled, technically gifted players and have scored in 10 of their last 11 European games which includes qualifiers, in the process building an impressive strike rate of 1.8 goals per game for a total of 20 goals.

Even though United’s recent European form suggests otherwise, (as they are unbeaten in 11 European games at Old Trafford which also includes qualifiers, with them coming out on top eight times while only drawing three), the Red Devils record in the Europa League is not so good as SAF was not a fan of the competition. This translates into a poor record as they have lost six of their last eight Europa League games, winning and drawing only once each while losing 6 games and depressingly conceding at least a goal in every one of the eight games.


Zorya Luhansk came 4th in the Ukrainian League last season but come into the game on a pretty poor run of form in Europe having gone 3 games without a victory, having lost 2 games and drawn 1.

Despite United’s recent excellent defensive record in the Premier League they have not been so miserly in European games where you have to go all the way back to November 2015 for the last European clean sheet for the Reds when they played PSV Eindhoven.

After losing to Feyenoord 1-0 in their opener, should United suffer defeat vs Zorya it will be a history making loss as they have never been defeated in the first two group matches of a European competition.

As we know Jose Mourinho has a pretty decent record in Europe having won the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) and the Champions League with Porto before winning the Champions League again with Inter Milan. Indeed JM has not been on the losing side of 2 European games since way back in April 2013 when he was managing Real Madrid so history and related statistics point towards a Manchester United win.

Following on from the 4-1 beating of Champions Leicester City you would be expecting United to continue in the same vein and record a win over Zorya Luhansk. Wayne Rooney was being lined up to start the game but is suffering from a back problem so will likely only make the bench if at all. Luke Shaw and Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not feature either so we see Jose lining up the Red Devils with the following personnel…

———————————David De Gea———————————

———Valencia——Bailly———–Smalling————Blind———-

————-Herrera———–Carrick————-Pogba——————-

——-Lingard—————-Ibrahimovic————Martial————–

Subs: Romero, Rooney, Fosu-Mensah, Schneiderlin, Rashford, Rojo,

We think United will come out 3-1 winners and get their first points in the group.