Full-time: Saint Etienne 0-1 United (agg: 0-4)
United stroll through a dreary match and into the next round but their victory may have come at a cost: Bailly’s red card means he will miss the first leg of the next round, while Mkhitaryan and Carrick left the field with suspected injuries.
Updated
90 min: Mourinho and Galtier have shaken hands and had a cuddle on the sideline. Somewhere, Roy Keane may be spitting at a TV screen...
89 min: Hats off the crowd for maintaining the atmosphere throughout what has been a dreary contest. Applause, also, for all the “Hate U€fa” banners. ‘m assuming they came as a surprise to Platini.
Updated
86 min: Pajot upends Smalling with a silly late tackle. Bizarre that that wasn’t a yellow card, bearing in mind what Bailly got his second one for.
83 min: Excellent play by Pogba, who lifts the ball over the head of one opponent before stamping it over to Schweinsteiger at the corner of the box. The German tries to arc a shot into the far corner... but over-hits it.
81 min: Pajot lets fly from 38 yards. For goodness sake.
79 min: Fellaini leads a counter-attack before offloading to Ibrahimovic and trotting into the centre to await a return pass. Pogba wants a pass too, at the edge of the area. But Ibrahimovic, having been ignored on similar occasions, decided to try to score himself. But Malcuit reads his intentions and dispossessed him easily.
Updated
76 min: Mata dinks a tasty ball over Théophile-Catherine. Rashford sprints on to it. Ruffier rushes out to narrow the angle. The youngster tries to flip it past the keeper but Ruffier gets a leg to it and deflects it away from the target.
74 min: Young sends over an outswinging corner. Pogba gets a glancing header on it. It’s heading wide but Malcuit clears it out for a corner, all the same. Blind’s delivery goes out for a throw-in.
72 min: The camera has picked out Michel Platini in the crowd. I do believe that’s the first time he’s been spotted at a match since his defenestration by Fifa.
70 min: Blind fails to complete an easy pass across the face of goal for Ibramhiovic, who looks to the skies as if cursing the gods for making him work with such inadequate mortals. The gods, no doubt, bow to the Swede and promise to try harder next time.
Updated
68 min: So, United have lost Mkhitaryan to an injury of unknown seriousness. And, according to BT, Carrick has suffered some sort of knock, too. And Bailly is to be suspended for the first leg of the next round. For a non-event, this has been quite an annoying match for United.
66 min: The home team have their danders up now but will need to find more poise and precision in attacking areas if they are to benefit from their numerical advantage.
BAILLY SENT OFF!
Two minutes after earning a yellow card, the defender clumps into Hamouma again and gets another! It was a harsh decision, as he did not make any dangerous contact with the player he tried to get to the ball before him. But United are down to 10 men and their stroll along Easy Street has just become irritating.
Updated
United substitution: Schweinsteiger on, Carrick off.
60 min: Bailly booked for a late table on Hamouma. He’ll miss the first leg of the next round.
Updated
58 min: Fellaini breaks into the left-hand side of the Saint Etienne box. Ibrahimovic wants the ball rolled across goal so he can help himself to a tap-in. But Fellaini doesn’t spot the Swede - or at least pretends not to - so goes for goal himself. Be blems his shot into the sidenetting.
56 min: Ibrahimovic holds the ball up outside the home box. He waits for Pogba to make a gallop into the area and then plays it into his path. But the midfielder goes down under pressure from two retreating defenders. And by ‘goes down’, we mean ‘fell’.
Saint Etienne substitution: Jorginho on, Saivet off.
53 min: Florentin Pogba sings over a menacing cross from the left. Bailly heads it away. Saivet tries to send a volley back goalward but misses the target.
50 min: Rashford tries to blast past Malcuit down the left but the defender demonstrates his speed once again and manages to stick the ball out for a corner. And the corner comes to nothing.
Updated
48 min: It’s going to take something truly extraordinary for Saint Etienne to get back into this. Fortunately, things may be about to take a turn in their favour ...
Thrilling discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star https://t.co/zquzAOgFGB
— The Guardian (@guardian) February 22, 2017
46 min: Saint Etienne start the second half, for what it’s worth.
Half-time: Saint Etienne 0-1 United (Agg: 0-4)
United players can tuck into pies now, if they fancy. Saint Etienne have had their chips.
Updated
45+1 min: Young nods a Saint Etienne cross behind for a corner - and then clears a terrible delivery at the near post. That sums up Saint Etienne so far: just not good enough to ruffle United.
43 min: Ibrahimovic leans into Hamouma and eases his opponent off the ball. Hamouma goes down clutching his face but the referee isn’t bothered - quite right, too. “Looks like United will get past Saint Etienne,” notes Matt Dony. “I think they’ve got Stereolab in the next round.” It had to be said.
41 min: Saivet bursts forward from midfield on the counter-attacks and threads a nice ball behind Bailly for Monnet-Pacquet to chase. Romero dos well to sprint out of his box and kill the the threat with a timely sliding tackle.
39 min: Romero gets a wake up call! The chance came from a setpiece - a freekick 39 yards out, to be precise - and Perrin met the curled delivered with a reasonable header at the penalty spot. It was straight at the keeper, who showed no stiffness after standing still for the last half hour. He catches it easily.
Updated
36 min: The easiness of this match is perhaps making United sloppy. They’re been guilty of quite a lot of errant passes, but still dominant. To be frank, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Herr Aytekin to bring an early end to another match.
34 min: A shot by Beric from outside the area ... goes out for a throw-in. This has become a mismatch.
Updated
30 min: Ibrahimovic feeds the ball wide to the overlapping Young, who fires a low pass across the face of goal. It’s inches too long for Rashford and Mata. Saint Etienne are being outclassed here by a United side in third gear.
28 min: Malcuit outpaces Rashford to foil another attack down the left - and Rashford isn’t injured.
United substitution: Rashford on, Mkhitaryan off. Now we see why Malcuit was so much faster than the Armenian a moment ago: Mkhitaryan seems to be suffering from a muscular problem - a hamstring, perhaps - so Mourinho has taken him off. No sign of a hobble from the player, so perhaps it is not very serious.
Updated
24 min: Pogba slips a nice pass through to Mkhitaryan. But Malcuit is much faster than the Armenian and races back to clear the danger. United will be back soon, you can be sure of that. They’re royally on top.
Updated
22 min: Another fierce cross from the left by Mata sparks problems in the home box. Vertout headed away at the near post but only on to the foot of a backtracking colleague (Pajot), who almost wound up with an own goal to his name. But Ruffier reacted swiftly to make a save.
19 min: Carrick heads a long throw-in clear. It drops towards Vertout, who attempts to lash a volley into the net from 25 yards. All he gets a reminder of how difficult it can be to translate honourable ideas into dignified deeds.
GOAL! Saint Etienne 0-1 United (Mkhitaryan 16)
United built up slowly down the left before Mata created space for a cross thanks to a dainty shuffle. He then curled an exquisite ball behind the defence. Mkhitaryan darted on to it and met it close to the near post, applying a toe-poke to to bemuse the keeper and enable the ball to continue on its journey towards the far corner! The home side now need at least five goals to progress, and that’s not going to happen.
Updated
11 min: United are holding off Saint Etienne quite easily at the moment, in the manner of an adult placing one hand on the forehead of a flailing child to stop him from landing any blows.
8 min: Pajot arrives fractionally too late for a challenge for a loose ball in midfield and ends up bringing his studs down on Carrick’s foot. A painful one for the United midfielder, but no serious damage done, apparently.
6 min: United are doing their best to turn the cauldron soporific: they’re trying to impose their control now by keeping possession.
4 min: Pogba tries to make space for a shot from 25 yards but Verteout didn’t buy his dummy and nicks the ball off him instead.
2 min: Mourinho wanted his team to gain early control of this match but Saint Etienne have set the tempo so far, albeit without finding precision to match their bold intentions.
1 min: Romero gets an early touch as Malcuit fires in a low cross. A nice settler for the keeper.
Updated
1 min: We have kickoff.
The home side are wearing their slinky green shirts with no self-indulgent designer adornments - they wouldn’t get away with that in the Premier League - along with white shorts and green socks. United are in white shirts, black shorts and white socks. And the pitch is momentarily engulfed in smoke from a series of flares let off by locals ...
Updated
The Pogba brothers exchange an elaborate hand-shake and a fraternal smile then trot out on to the pitch with their team-mates. One of the giant banners displayed by the locals bears a slogan that can be translated as: “A soporific theatre has nothing on our magical cauldron” and it’s not wrong.
There’s a hell of an atmosphere in the stadium nicknamed the Cauldron. Spine-tingling war cries, self-appointed MCs with loudhalers and ginormous banners with art work that wouldn’t be out of place on a heavy metal album cover: it’s all going on.
Mourinho, talking to TV’s Des Kelly just now: “Anything can happen in football. We have a situation that we shouldn’t waste so I think it’s important to start well, better than we did in the first leg. I’m not saying we have to score immediately but we have to start playing well immediately and keep control of the game.” Asked why he hasn’t chosen a weakened side, he replies: “”It’s an important game, a knockout. In football things can change … but I don’t want to have to blame myself that I made it easy or gave the wrong message to my players.”
Updated
Southampton will have had two weeks off by the time Sunday’s League Cup final comes around but Mourinho has not used that as a reason to rest any of his big players or, indeed, pick himself. It’s a very different approach to Claude Puel, who would have rotated his entire team if the situations were reversed. You get the impression that Mourinho thinks that “blooding youngsters” is a pre-emptive excuse for defeat.
Updated
You might like to know that today’s referee, Deniz Aytekin, is man who upholds the dignity and safety of his assistants. In 2011 he abandoned a match between St Pauli and Schalke in the 89th minute because a fan threw a plastic cup of beer at one of his helpers. Away from the pitch, Herr Aytekin is an “internet entrepreneur”, according to Wikipedia. All of which adds intrigue to the identity of at least one of his assistants today, a fellow German named (Markus) Hacker.
“Quick one for those of us who haven’t been paying attention: why is this game on tonight instead of tomorrow?” parps Drew Gough. That’ll be because nearby Lyon are hosting AZ Alkmaar tomorrow and the local authorities have no appetite for interaction between locals rivals plus English and Dutch fans. It’s not 1977, but still.
Teams:
Mourinho will remain in his civvies throughout, then (unless he has something truly scandalous in store). Here are the line-ups:
Saint Etienne: Ruffier; Malcuit, Perrin, Théophile-Catherine, Pogba; Pajot, Veretout; Hamouma, Saivet, Monnet-Pacquet; Besic
Subs: Moulin, Lacroix, Roux, Seinaes, Intima, Pierre-Gabriel
United: Romero; Young, Bailly, Smalling, Blind; Fellaini, Carrick, Pogba; Mata, Ibrahimovic, Mhitaryan
Subs: De Gea, Rojo, Martial, Lingard, Rashford, Valencia, Schweinsteiger
Referee: D Aytekin (Germany)
Updated
Preamble
Hello and welcome to an occasion on which we find out whether José Mourinho can match the panache of vintage Saint Etienne. On the final day of the 1974-75 season, with Les Verts having wrapped up their second successive French title (and firmly on course for a second successive double), their manager, Robert Herbin, decided to add a flourish to their final home match of the season: he named himself in the starting line-up against Troyes. And when Saint Etienne, who had won every home match in the league that season, were awarded a penalty five minutes from time, do you think Herbin left it to be converted by the usual penalty-taker, Jean-Michel Larqué? Of course not, he seized the ball and leathered it into the net himself, putting a snazzy ribbon on a 5-1 victory. So how you gonna follow that, José?
Admittedly, Manchester United’s current position is not quite as cosy as Saint Etienne’s was back then but are they really likely to let slip the 3-0 first-leg lead given to them last week by Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s hat-trick? It’s not impossible, to be fair, as Saint Etienne did create plenty of chances at Old Trafford and, if they’ve any sense, have been working round the clock on their finishing since then. We must also bear in mind that in 1975 Herbin was 36 years old (he had retired from playing three years previously). Mourinho is 54. All things considered, for the Portuguese to pick himself in the starting line-up today would be to flirt with recklessness, even humiliation. We’ll have the team news for you shortly but chances are that Mourinho, still cautious at heart, will only be among the substitutes.
Updated
Here’s Jamie Jackson’s piece from the Loire:
José Mourinho’s control at Manchester United was illustrated in his stark declaration that Luke Shaw is not currently good enough to merit a squad place for Wednesday’s Europa League game at St-Étienne which, it should be remembered, is practically dead as a contest.
Shaw has been dropped for the past five outings and failed to be a replacement in four of those. Wednesday night’s last-32 second leg with Christophe Galtier’s side will stretch this unwanted statistic to five. Mourinho left the defender behind in Manchester despite United holding a 3-0 advantage over St-Étienne and the manager also decided that Matteo Darmian, who can operate at left-back as well, was not required to travel either.
Updated
