St Etienne vs Manchester United as it happened: Henrikh Mkhitaryan goal enough for second leg win
Re-live updates from the Europa League last-32 second leg at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
Manchester United’s Europa League campaign continues in France with a last-32 second leg at Saint-Etienne.
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Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho’s side lead 3-0 on aggregate, courtesy of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic hat-trick in last week’s first leg at Old Trafford.
Wayne Rooney is one of three players left at home for this trip, with Luke Shaw and Matteo Darmian also omitted from Mourinho’s 20-man squad.
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What time is kick-off?
The match will kick off at 5.00pm on Wednesday 22 February.
Where can I watch it?
It will be shown live on BT Sport 3, with coverage starting at 4.30pm.
It’s a big game for…
Marcus Rashford: It’s almost a year to the day since the youngster broke into United’s first-team with that hat-trick against Midtjylland at the same stage of this competition.
Rashford’s progression has slowed somewhat, but following suggestions that Mourinho sees him as Ibrahimovic’s long-term replacement and a goal against Blackburn, he will enter this fixture confident.
Remember when…
These two sides previously met in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1977. The leg in Saint-Etienne is remembered for violence in the stands, which was so bad, the return leg had to be played 400km away from Old Trafford, at Plymouth’s Home Park.
Past three-meetings
Manchester United 3 Saint-Etienne 0
Europa League, February 2017
Manchester United 2 Saint-Etienne 0
Cup Winners’ Cup, October 1977
Saint-Etienne 1 Manchester United 1
Cup Winners’ Cup, September 1977
Form guide
Saint-Etienne: WLWLL
Manchester United: DWWWW
Odds
Provided by 888.com
Saint-Etienne: 47/20
Manchester United: 11/9
Draw: 9/4
Team news:
St Etienne: Ruffier, Malcuit, Perrin, Theophile-Catherine, F.Pogba, Pajot, Veretout, Saivet, Hamouma, Beric, Monnet-Paquet
Subs: Moulin, Lacroux, Lemoine, Pierre-Gabriel, Selnaes, Jorginho, Roux
And Mourinho has opted for a very strong starting eleven...
Manchester United: Romero, Young, Smalling, Bailly, Blind, Carrick, Pogba, Fellaini, Mata, Mkhitaryan, Ibrahimovic
Subs: De Gea, Valencia, Rojo, Schweinsteiger, Lingard, Martial, Rashford
So both Pogba brothers start for their respective teams this evening. Here they are chilling out on the pitch together ahead of the 5pm kick-off:
Mourinho has sprung a bit of a surprise with his line-up this evening:
United are of course 3-0 up on aggregate after the first-leg at Old Trafford and so many had expected Mourinho to name a weakened side, especially with the final of the EFL Cup at Wembley on Sunday.
But, with the exception of Sergio Romero replacing David de Gea in goal, that very much looks like United's strongest team. Mourinho is clearly not in the mood to take any chances this evening.
A large number of United fans have made the trip across the channel to support their team this evening...
Let's hope the United travelling supporters are better behaved than their French counterparts were at Old Trafford last week.
After the match, Uefa opened disciplinary proceedings against Saint Etienne following the behaviour of their fans, for throwing objects onto the pitch and then setting off a firework.
↵Tonight's match has been rather overshadowed by the speculation surrounding Wayne Rooney's future. Our Chief Football Writer, Miguel Delaney, earlier exclusively revealed however that Rooney will not be moving before the end of the Premier League season.
Meanwhile, our Chief Sports Writer Ian Herbert has urged Rooney to forget the Chinese Super League altogether:
Paul Scholes is a pundit on BT Sport this evening and has just had this to say on Wayne Rooney's future:
I don’t know if he will go but I think he’ll want to go. Wayne is a player who wants to play every week.
I don’t see him hanging about if he’s not going to be playing in the big games.
But I don't think that China is right for him and I don't think that China is right for his family. Maybe he will go back to Everton for a season or two.
And here's Mourinho on his exceptionally strong team selection for this evening's match:
The second leg is yes or no, in or out. We have a lead but in football things can change. I don’t want to give the wrong message to my players.
As I was saying I can lose matches but I don't like to blame myself.