Manchester United’s Amad Diallo scored twice for a 2-0
win over PAOK in the Europa League on Thursday as interim manager Ruud van
Nistelrooy achieved what the sacked Erik ten Hag failed to do with the club’s
first victory in this season’s competition.
United had drawn their three previous Europa League
games, but Amad’s looping header back across the goal into the bottom corner
from a Bruno Fernandes cross five minutes after the break sent Van Nistelrooy’s
side on their way.
The Greek visitors to Old Trafford had chances to take
something from the game and United goalkeeper Andre Onana was forced to tip
over a shot from Mady Camara in the first half.
PAOK had an excellent opportunity to equalise in the
64th minute but the unmarked Taril Tissoudali could not get enough power in his
shot from close range to beat Onana, and Amad made sure of victory 13 minutes
from the end.
This time he did it all alone, dispossessing Baba
Rahman and holding off the defender’s challenge to reach the edge of the area
before unleashing a curling shot which took a slight deflection on its way into
the far corner.
The win leaves United in 15th place in the Europa
League standings on six points from four games.
“It’s been a long time since we won in Europe. Today
we showed why we are one of the best teams. It was important to win today,”
Amad told TNT Sports.
“It is important to score every time. This season I
have been unlucky so I am happy to score two today. But the most important
thing was to win.”
Van Nistelrooy, the former United striker who will
shortly make way for new manager Ruben Amorim, replaced Ten Hag 10 days ago and
is unbeaten during his three games in charge.
“It was a pretty poor first half if I’m being nice,”
Van Nistelrooy said. “The second half way was better. That was clear.
“(Amad) made a difference today because of his goals
but he was very sharp. Well done to him, good game. Positionally we weren’t
good in the first half. We were much better at that in the second half.”
Comments:
Leave a Reply