Jose Mourinho was so disgusted with the state of FC Rostov’s pitch that he lobbied UEFA to postpone the match until the surface was acceptable.
However, Europe’s governing body deemed the pitch playable and the tie went ahead, and the former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss will probably be glad that they did so.
United made the near 4000 mile round trip and picked up a 1-1 draw for their efforts which, considering Bayern Munich and Ajax have both been turned over on the same pitch this season, is a decent result to take back to Old Trafford for the second leg, with the backing of that crucial away goal.
Mourinho made his plans clear from the off, a back three and a number of changes to the side showed they were not there to run rings around their Russian opponents, and the first goal showed as much.
A ball played up to Marouane Fellaini who found Zlatan Ibrahimovic who, in turn, picked out the returning Henrikh Mkhitaryan to finish showed that, on this awful surface, United were not going to be playing much fancy football.
The result should be more than enough for Mourinho’s side to see themselves through at Old Trafford and, having fought hard to keep it secure when they had to on Thursday night, they have successfully ticked off another fixture in their packed schedule.
Should United progress as far as they can on all fronts they will have taken on a whopping 66 games this season. With such a hectic schedule, whilst performances akin to that against Rostov are not glamorous or exciting, such results are often a necessary evil to keep things fresh for the clashes which lie ahead.
That is especially true of this coming week. Mourinho makes his second return to his old stomping ground, Stamford Bridge, on Monday night for an FA Cup quarter final clash which is sure to set pulses racing.
Putting everything into context, the tie in Russia was simply a distraction ahead of the domestic clash with Antonio Conte’s side and, having come away in a strong position for the second leg, the Red Devils are perfectly poised to press further on towards that cup treble this season.