Fire threatens to engulf Erik ten Hag before late Harry Maguire heroics

At the home of the Dragons, Erik ten Hag felt the fire. At times it threatened to engulf him before substitute Harry Maguire came to his and Manchester United’s rescue with an injury-time header. But will it save the manager? Will it douse the flames? The truth is, it adds a little more fuel.
Porto came from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 and looked set to inflict more defeat on United. But down to 10 men, Maguire met a corner, as they pushed for an equaliser, to bury his header and earn a point.
It is away to high-flying Aston Villa next on Sunday – with Sir Jim Ratcliffe due to attend – before the international break and the case for keeping Ten Hag remains questionable. Just like United.
In fact there are so, so many questions. Porto’s stadium is named after the dragon that appears on the club crest and the city’s coat of arms. They are not the force of old but, at times, they were far too much for United in this open Europa League encounter.
United were excellent for 20 minutes and awful for the next 70 minutes. And then they scored. Discuss. Ten Hag took off Marcus Rashford, who had been their best player with a goal and an assist, for “rotation” and for that baffling decision alone his competence should be in doubt.
Sensational footwork from Marcus Rashford 😍Man United take the lead in Porto 💪📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/sY7EAU8poN
Both centre-halves were substituted surely because they were liabilities. It was a bad, bad night for Matthijs de Ligt with Lisandro Martinez not much better.
It was Maguire, fresh from being called by Lee Carsley to tell him he had been omitted from the England squad, and 36-year-old Jonny Evans who came on and it looked like Ten Hag had lost the plot. Or was it a master-stroke? As ever with United nothing is clear.
Ten Hag is fighting to keep his job and it depends how you want to look at it. Did he and his team show resilience and spirit in adversity or were they guilty of appalling game-management? Or was it both? And what does it mean? It all depends how determined the United hierarchy and Ratcliffe are to keep him.
Porto’s Samu Omorodion – a target for Chelsea in the summer when he was leaving Atletico Madrid – destroyed United’s defence. He scored twice and helped force Porto’s other goal and it was only when he went off that United could breathe.
Porto gifted United two goals, through goalkeeping blunders, but then scored three times in 23 minutes and should have scored more especially when United’s captain Bruno Fernandes was sent off for two yellows, both for dangerous play. And yet United did not lose.
Bruno Fernandes is SENT OFF! 🟥 The Man United captain is shown a second yellow for dangerous play 😬📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/0Y9fkgrgTZ
Next up for United in Europe? It is away to Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce and how he will be relishing that. Will he face Ten Hag? We will soon find out but until Maguire’s late intervention his chances were simply going up in flames.
And yet. It is now 19 months since United have won away in Europe; in their last four European away games they have conceded 14 goals; since Ten Hag took over no Premier League club has conceded three or more goals more often. For United it is 24 times. And this is Manchester United we are talking about. They concede and they collapse with the opposition scoring goals in bunches.
United were over-run in midfield where Casemiro and Christian Eriksen looked like what they are: fading thirtysomethings. The centre-halves have already been discussed but the full-backs were not much better. Rashford was a shining light but left at half-time and Rasmus Hojlund was a threat. Alejandro Garnacho did well when he came on. But, really? The truth is United – once again – were poor and a team of moments.
It is two draws for them in Europe – and 10 games since a win – having finished 1-1 against Twente at home after which Eriksen declared that the Dutch side wanted it more. It looked like Porto wanted it more here, also, and yet United did keep going, riding their luck, and Maguire thumped in that header from Eriksen’s delivery.
A TOWERING HEADER! 💥Harry Maguire scores a crucial equaliser for 10-man Man United 👏📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/WRkrSZEpT4
And to think it had all looked so rosy. Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa – so highly-rated – had a nightmare. Rashford’s run was superb and deserved reward but his shot was not precise or powerful enough, only for Costa to get a foot to it but not enough to stop it going in. Then Rashford picked out Hojlund whose low effort was firm but should not have squirmed under Costa.
At that point United should have taken control; kept the ball; drew the sting. Instead they were pushed back and panicked and could not defend the simplest of crosses. Once Porto scored; United fell apart.
For their first Noussair Mazraoui inexplicably headed the ball goalwards under pressure from Omorodion. Andre Onana did well to push it out only for Pepe to rush in and stoop to head home. Mazraoui held his own head in disbelief.
Cue the customary United collapse. This time Omorodion was too strong and determined for De Ligt, heading high into the net from inside the six-yard area. It was a sign of more to come with, soon after half-time, another United theme, Pepe tearing past Martinez, cutting the ball back and Omorodion again easily losing De Ligt. It was pathetic defending from United. It took just two simple passes and a cross to open them up.
PORTO COMPLETE THE COMEBACK! 🤯Samu Omorodion brushes de Ligt aside to score a brilliant header 🎯📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/w9xaGEpC0M
There should have been more with Omorodion and Nico Gonzalez denied by Onana before Maguire rose high to save United. Will he save Ten Hag? It surely is not enough. Not yet.
On his job security after three wins in 10 games:
“We will get there. Don’t judge in this moment, just us at the end of the season. I said the same last season. Just wait. We are in the process, we will improve. We now have two seasons where we achieve finals. Just wait, we have to develop and progress this team.”
Will he get until the end of the season with this form?
“We will work and we will continue. We will fight. You see the spirit and the connection between the staff and the team and the players together had a strong spirit. They want to achieve and we are in a direction. We have the good mentality spirit-wise but especially in the defending parts we have to step up.”
“We started the game very good and we dominate them. We scored two good goals but then we lost control. The start was good. The middle part was not good and we finished very good. It’s a tough place to go and we came back from 3-2, we got the equaliser so it’s good for the spirit. You see the team is willing, strong character but in the middle part… the defending we have to improve.”
Why did they lose control?
“First of all, be better on the ball. Keep switching, we had our free players, we had a good plan, we had free players so use them and more goals will come. Second thing is yeah obviously we have to defend better.”
On conceding goals in bunches:
“We had three clean sheets not so long ago so we can defend very good. But we have to go back to those habits. Only then you can win games. When you score three times in an away game in Europe, that must be enough.”
Rashford injured after being taken off at half-time?
“We have to rotate. Garnacho we didn’t start him. He had a great game, not only on Sunday but in the whole season. We switched them, on Sunday we have another hard game, a good game. We need players to be available, to be fit and fresh.”
Could Rashford not have played any more minutes tonight?
“But we have to play Garnacho.”
With an eye on Sunday?
“We go quickly turnaround to Villa and they have a day longer. We have an away game so we want fresh players on the pitch on Sunday.”
“Maybe you can talk about leadership, I think it’s; an easy word to throw out. The boys on the pitch have obviously got together and have to realise that it’s happened far too many times. They’ve got to realise every time when we concede it’s something that we need to reset and refocus and make sure that we go back to the gameplan that got us the lead in the first place. It’s something that we do need to improve on and speak about among the players. If we want to be successful this season we can’t be conceding two goals in as many minutes as we have done this season. 
On Erik ten Hag’s future:
“Yeah, I think to be honest I’ve played for this club now for six years. I know how it works and when you go through a bad spell, players come under pressure but also the manager does. He’s experienced enough, he’s been in the game long enough, he’s been at this club long enough that I am sure he knows he to deal with it. It’s part and parcel of playing for this club or managing this club. It’s part of the privilege that you have.”
On what was said at half-time and after the game:
“I think after every game you analyse and speak among yourselves, the manager spoke, a few members of staff spoke and the players spoke as well. It’s pretty normal, I’ve been in many dressing rooms fter the game where everyone has a chat and speal about what we can do better.”
On what went wrong after going 2-0 up:
“I think when you get 2-0 away from home in a place like this you’ve got to be a little bit more solid and a little bit more secure. There were far too many gaps, too many crosses coming into the box for sure. They ultimately punished us for it. We played really well with the ball in the first-half, just really poorly without it.”
On why they keep conceding goals in clusters:
“I think it’s more probably the mental issue. It’s something that we’ve got to overcome. It probably starts with belief. When we go 2-0 up and then we concede does the belief go a little bit between the boys that we can go on and win the game here? 
“It’s something we need to be aware of, something we need to focus on. Really make sure that when we do concede we get together, we regroup and stick together because that’s part and parcel of football and something we’ve got to do better.”
“At times it looks like they get something sorted and then something else goes. He’s got to find the consistency with the back partnership. He took off his two starting centre-backs for two ones that have been there for a really long time: Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire. 
“He’s [Erik ten Hag] got to find goals at the top of the pitch… a defensive partnership and a partnership in midfield. There are a lot of issues. He’s been there for quite a while, Erik now. A lot of that should have been sorted. I think there will be a lot of questions after the game because that’s not the level they need to be consistent.”
Should be irrelevant. Or at least nothing to praise them for, especially. You cannot make a team on character alone. And what sort of character did they display to go down 3-2 from being 2-0 up in the first place? You would say a net negative on character, in truth. 
Well, that was a highly entertaining game littered with errors and the occasional moment of excellence. United 2-0 up, 3-2 down and then level at the very death. Did they deserve a draw? Probably, maybe, just about. Normally you would say a point away in Europe is no shame but try and pick the bones out of this game. Not easy…
Not sure drawing this rather than losing it changes the outlook much for United. Yes you do not want to lose and yes a point is better than none. But this has been a generally shambolic performance. A 3-3 thriller with defensive mistakes after going 2-0 up is not a one-off. It’s the type of game we have seen many times before. And that should be extremely concerning for everyone involved in the club. 
It’s Harry Maguire with a header! United win a corner on the right and Eriksen delivers straight onto Maguire’s head. He heads it down into the ground and then into the corner of the net! Porto defenders lie prone on the floor in dejection and despair. 
A TOWERING HEADER! 💥Harry Maguire scores a crucial equaliser for 10-man Man United 👏📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/WRkrSZEpT4
Porto 3 Man Utd 3
Garnacho has another shot from distance and it’s close! This one is ferociously struck and Costa makes a good save to tip it over the bar with fingertips on both hands. 
United cannot really have any complaints about anything tonight. Yes, they were 2-0 ahead but those goals came through hideous errors from Diogo Costa in the Porto goal. Neither of them should have been goals. Porto have hardly been that much better but United have just been poor all round. Poor tactics, poor application, poor awareness, poor execution and terrible “managing” of the game when 2-0 up. 
How does that sending off change the game? Well, the one-man advantage immediately awards Gul acres of space as he charges through on goal with just Onana to beat. He could square it to Galeno but declines and Onana saves well from a low shot. That could have been all over. Maguire tried to play the onside trap but Mazraoui kept him onside. 
Fernandes is in trouble here. He dived in with a high boot for a cross and took out one of the Porto defenders: Perez. 
Indeed it is a second yellow and that is enough to have him sent off for the second game in a row. Fair enough this time, I think. Nothing malicious in it but it was careless. You cannot do that. Not sure he actually gets him in the face (he went down clutching it) but that shouldn’t really matter. 
Samu, who has “bagged a brace” and has been highly effective, comes off to a fine reception. Well played. 
A double change for United. De Ligt and Martinez off for two other centre-halves: Maguire and Evans. 
Porto are deep and are inviting the pressure now. Fernandes finds Casemiro who wastes a ball over the top which Diogo Costa easily claims. I’d say Erik ten Hag looks worried on the touchline but that is how he always looks. 
The sting has been taken a out of the game a little bit but I do think United will get another chance. Garnacho wins a corner through a deflected shot. 
A double change for United. Amad Diallo and Rasmus Hojlund off. Joshua Zirkzee and Antony on. 
Since Erik ten Hag took over at United, they have conceded at least three goals in a game 24 times. United’s defence all at sea so many times in this game. Samu cannot control the ball in space to get a shot away, but De Ligt cannot sort his feet out to meaningfully block or clear and it comes back to the Porto attacker. He shoots to the left of Onana who makes another save, tipping it behind. Deary me. United’s defence looks finished. And confused. 
Mazraoui has a shot from the edge of the box. Well-directed but sligthly lucky as he’s falling over when he hits it. Diogo Costa palms it to Garnacho but he too is off balance and cannot convert from the left side of the six-yard box, side-footing wide after a heavy first touch. 
United with a bit of a spell with the ball. You feel a chance will come for them at some point given the nature of the game so far, but it will be whether they concede any more at the other end. 
Garnacho has a pot shot from 22 yards out. Straight at the keeper who comfortably saves. 
That said, a win is a win and Erik ten Hag will take that in any way right now. United are still creating chances, though. The latest comes through Garnacho and Eriksen on the left. The Dane’s square ball cannot find Fernandes or Hojlund, though as Costa collects. 
What can you say? Man Utd are just not much of a football team in any department. There is time in the game for them to come back, but to what? Even a win from this point – unless it involves three unanswered goals – still leaves more questions than it answers. The problem is they are the same questions that have been there for the past two years. Or more. 
I’d say it is scarcely believable but for United fans it is all to believable. A superbly taken goal from Samu at the near post with an assist by Pepe. Pepe is onside, shrugs off Martinez on the box (who should have done a lot better) and pulls it back for Samu at the near post who slams it high into the net! De Ligt not offering much resistance there, either. 
WOW 🤯Samu Omorodion scores his second of the night and gives Porto the lead! 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/Kr041pTsHr
Porto 3 Man Utd 2
This is one hell of a stat from ESPN’s Rob Dawson…
Just in Europe since the start of last season, Man United have conceded two goals in four minutes at Bayern, two in 10 mins vs Galatasaray (h), two in four minutes vs Copenhagen (a), two in nine minutes vs Galatasaray (a) and now two in seven minutes vs Porto (a).
That shows that something, somewhere is fundamentally wrong. It used to be the case that Arsenal would score and then concede straight away. But this is a far worse trend to be guilty of. 
 
Porto squander a golden chance early in the second half! United are stretched and left-back Moura bursts into the box and shoots down low but straight at Onana, who saves well with his right hand. Behind for a corner. 
We are under way in the second-half. Casemiro gets a touch of the ball early on. Not sure I’ve typed his name so far tonight other than in the line-ups. 
Marcus Rashford off and Alejandro Garnacho on. Is he injured? He was their best player…
A highly entertaining first half. United conform to type in one form or another in almost every game these days. Tonight we are seeing the vintage collapse despite a good start. It will most likely end with some early despair in the second-half, a bit of hope when they get a goal back before conceding late on and suffering another European defeat. Who knows, though, maybe Ten Hag’s words at half-time will make a positive difference?
Rashford runs into the box, keeps running, sideways through the box, beats more and more defenders but once he gets the shot away the Porto defenders are there to block. He is causing problems, no doubt. Could do with putting it away a bit more but no real criticism for him tonight. And that is the half. 
Dalot has a shot with his right foot from distance. It curls, but over and wide. 
Lisandro Martinez gets a dig to the ribs, intentional or otherwise, when challenging Nico González, I think. Hard to see because Porto’s names on the back of their shirts are in a minuscule font, despite acres of blue space on the backs of their shirts. Cost cutting perhaps?
Erik ten Hag’s side are, to reuse a phrase by Telegraph Sport columnist Jamie Carragher, mentality midgets. 
A bit of a scramble at the far post after a wonderful deep ball from Bruno Fernandes but Hojlund cannot get a shot away…
“How many times have we seen this – United collapsing at the first hint of a setback. No sooner had Porto pulled one back than they were level. Mentally, they are again found lacking. It’s game on. Ten Hag needs his players to compose themselves and rally.”
This has been a breathless first-half. United need to find more quality at both ends of the pitch, despite their two goals. They are just slightly chaotic, even when they are at their best. 
Robbie Savage on TNT Sports commentary says that United were in control for long periods of the game but that is nonsense, really. Even at 2-0 United were not in control. 
Bruno Fernandes whips a ball in from the right. Martinez is reaching out at the far post for it but cannot connect…
As they have done so often in European competitions in the past few years, United have squandered a healthy lead! Samu was a terror to United in the opening moments and this time he converts a header from close range, beating De Ligt and Onana high into the goal!
Porto 2 Man Utd 2
Bruno Fernandes is booked for a high and slightly late boot on Varela with the ball loose and in the air. Hmmm. Probably a foul, not sure it was a booking. 
“After scoring, Rasmus Hojlund went over to the United bench to celebrate with David Binningsley – his main physiotherapist during his recovery from the hamstring injury that put him out for the first couple of months of the campaign.”
It seems slightly perverse to write this given they are 2-1 ahead but, you do fear for United. You really do. 
Pepe with a follow-up header! The ball comes in from the right, Mazraoui heads the ball back towards goal where Onana saves. Martinez does not react quickly enough and Pepe is there to pounce to get the hosts back to one behind. 
Porto pull a goal back 👀André Onana with a great save but Pepê heads home the rebound. 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/6VrefsV8kW
Porto 1 Man Utd 2
Joao Mario with another dangerous ball in from the right. De Ligt with another good header behind for a corner. Sound defending and good positioning. 
United had started to defend rather deep after the first goal. Will this change the way they set up?
The ball was cleared for that goal but it was already well beyond the line. Rashford has a shot from a tight angle on the left and this time Costa does get a hand to take it away, rather than into, the goal. That’s a start. You feel they will target the Porto goal whenever they can. 
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Costa is having a shocker between the sticks for Porto. 
Rashford the provider this time as he puts through Rasmus Hojlund. Like Rashford he shoots low from the left corner of the six-yard box. It’s well struck and Costa gets a hand to it but it bounces behind the goalline to give United a two-goal lead. A good move but, again, the keeper should have saved that 99 per cent of the time. Costa seemingly has a right arm made of smoke. 
BACK WITH A BANG! 💥Rasmus Højlund scores in his first start of the season ⚽📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/Ws2o3ghOfg
Porto 0 Man Utd 2
An interesting stat. Marcus Rashford now has 14 goals in the Europa League. That moves him outright third among English goalscorers in this competition (and its previous iteration) behind Alan Shearer (21) and Jermain Defoe (19).
Rashford with the ball on the left again. A dangerous low ball in and Hojlund is trying to get on the end of it but a Porto defender manages to get there first, behind for a corner. United win another corner as one Porto defender (Ze Pedro) boots it into the face of another (Galeno) and behind. 
Samu gets the space and time to have a shot this time. Martinez turns his back and blocks well. Joao Mario blasts wide and over with the follow-up… there are goals in this game, I feel. 
Joao Mario crosses in for Samu, who has been involved a lot in the first 12 minutes, but De Ligt is there to clear the danger. 
United look to have weathered that early storm of pressure from Porto. Although you feel a chance is always around the corner when you are playing them. De Ligt sends behind a dangerous cross for a Porto corner. 
Rashford picks up the ball on the left, bursts into the box and has a shot down to the keeper’s right. Diogo Costa gets plenty on it…but not enough to stop it rolling tamely into the back of the net! 
Sensational footwork from Marcus Rashford 😍Man United take the lead in Porto 💪📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/sY7EAU8poN
United have been stung twice in recent games by players waltzing through the defence and that is what Rashford did here, albeit slightly less extremely than against Spurs and Twente. Excellent footwork on the ege of the box to beat the defenders. Keeper should be saving 99.9 per cent of those. A sloppy goal to concede in more ways than one. 
Porto 0 Man Utd 1
United’s first attack of the game. Hojlund sends in Rashford on the left edge of the box but he takes too many touches and is then ushered to the byline and out of danger before Eriken’s resultant cross in is cleared. Rashford could have had a snap shot but decided against it. 
It doesn’t take a great side to cause United’s defence problem these days… but Samu again picks the ball up in the penalty box without too much pressure. United eventually do clear but this is a pretty edgy start from a team in poor form. 
More early promise from Porto! Samu chases a loose ball on the right, he squares it to Galeno on the edge of the box. It’s a direct shot which is easy enough to save for Onana but he has to put it behind for a corner…
We are under way in Porto, albeit a minute or so later than planned. There is a very early chance for Porto as Samu picks up the ball from Galeno. He swivels to shoot but cannot get the shot away, with Mazraoui doing the blocking. 
“He [Rasmus Hojlund] showed in the past he can do it. He can be very direct, very good box movement. We built him up and now he has to come in the start and continue, keep fit and he will score. I am sure. We had three players with question marks: Harry Maguire, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo. Kobbie didn’t make it, the other two did make it but hopefully we can play them in the game today.
“They [the team] have the week before we played against Crystal Palace very well, it was one of our best games. They have to trust, they have to believe. It’s about the plan in each other. When things go wrong in a game that is the moment that you have to keep the faith.
“It’s the reaction [after Spurs defeat]. Of course, we need a reaction. We have to do everything well. It’s a very good opponent and that is the challenge and we want those challenges. Make sure as a team and as individuals make syre you are ready.”
Manchester United supporters have spoken of their disappointment after 180 fans were forced to miss the club’s Europa League tie away to Porto on Thursday night when their flight was cancelled.
The fans, who had paid £512 per person for the trip, were originally due to fly to Portugal at 7.50am on Thursday through United’s official travel partner, SportsBreaks. But a technical fault with the plane led to the original flight being delayed and a replacement aircraft dispatched to Manchester Airport.
The rescheduled flight had been due to depart almost seven hours later, at 2.30pm. Fans are understood to have eventually boarded the plane just after 3pm but the flight was then cancelled because fog in Porto caused further delays and meant they were unable to get a departure slot.
SportsBreaks apologised for the situation and have issued full refunds. United – who have been given an allocation of 2,502 tickets in total for the match – said they were “very sorry for the disappointment experienced by impacted fans” and that supporters would receive a complimentary ticket for their Europa League tie against Bodo/Glimt at Old Trafford on November  28.
Jon Nield, 50, was due to make the trip with his disabled son Alex, 17, and his brother Nigel and his son Daniel. They had arrived at the airport around 6am and eventually got home about 6.15pm.
“There were a lot of disappointed people,” said Nield. “I think people had realised that with it being a two and a half hour flight there and half an hour transfer to the ground and getting through security we weren’t going to make it. There was a lot of annoyed people who just wanted to get home.
“I’m gutted but I’m more gutted for Alex who was desperate to see a game in Portugal. He finally got to Barcelona a couple of years back but he really wanted to go to Portugal because of the [Cristiano] Ronaldo link. This would have been his 19th different country watching United.
 “He’s such a happy go lucky kid but he’s so disappointed. He was clinging to the hope he’d get there and when he got on the plane I think he thought we were going to make it but sadly we never left.”
The United fans affected were kept informed of events by SportsBreaks during the day via text and email and through representatives of the company on the ground. They each received a meal voucher at the airport.
SportsBreak confirmed in an email that fans would receive a full refund that could take three to five days to process.
A spokesperson for the club said: “Manchester United is very sorry for the disappointment experienced by the impacted fans. They will receive a full refund from our travel partner Sportsbreaks.com, and as a thank you for their continued support a complimentary ticket for our Europa League home game against Bodo/Glimt.”
Not quite as mixed as United’s…
Won: Porto 4 Arouca 0Lost: Bodo/Glimt 3 Porto 2Won: Vitoria SC 0 Porto 3Won: Porto 2 Farense 1Lost: Sporting 2 Porto 0
“There were fitness doubts prior to the game over Alejandro Garnacho, Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo. Garnacho and Maguire are only fit enough for the bench, while the game came too soon for Mainoo after he was substituted during the first half of the 3-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur. United insist it is a “minor issue” but the midfielder is not named among the substitutes.”
He is speaking to TNT Sports on the touchline. 
“Really special day for me and my family. Grew up here, this was the club that made me be here today at Man United, so really special day, means a lot. Listen, I have been here for a while now and I have been through that speculation. I think it’s just external noise. We try to leave it outside, Our job is to try to be better every day. We know we have things to improve, definitely. Today we have another opportunity to do so, that’s our focus. 
“Most of all I would say that we have to be more clinical. I think we are creating chances to score goals, ultimately that will make some difference… to get results and to get more trust between each other. With a sense of trying to be calm, trying to be positive. 
“I still feel that we are going to make a very successful season. Obviously there are things that we need to improve, we are the first ones to look ourselves in the mirror and realise that but at the same time we know that we have been doing a lot of good things. A lot of making progress from last season and that is the unseen work that will pay off sooner or later.”
Fair to say, mixed at best. The game before this run was the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool… at Old Trafford. 
Lost: Man Utd 0 Spurs 3Drew: Man Utd 1 FC Twente 1Drew: Crystal Palace 0 Man Utd 0Won: Man Utd 7 Barnsley 0Won: Southampton 0 Man Utd 3 
They first met 47 years ago in the Cup Winners Cup, with United losing 6-5 on aggregate. No meetings until 1997 in the Champions League when United won 5-0 at home before drawing 0-0 away. Then, of course, there was the most famous tie between these two sides in 2004. Jose Mourinho’s men were victors 3-2 on aggregate on their way to their second European Cup/Champions League title. 
Since then there was another two-legged Champions League meeting, with United that time advancing 3-2 on aggregate to the semi-finals, where they would beat Arsenal before losing to Barcelona in Rome. 
“I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they have a rope around their necks. 
“But, no, no, we are just looking at our objective and that is to reach the next stage. We always see them as a threat, not as a good point to take them on.
“We have to just be ourselves and look at them the way the way we have to look at them, with respect, a lot of respect, with a lot of individuals.
“I know what you mean talking about their last match, but we must see the whole not the last one.”
Starting XI: Costa, Mario, Ze Pedro, Nehuén Pérez, Moura, Varela, Eustaquio, Nico, Pepe, Galeno, SamuSubstitutes: Ramos, Djaló, Grujic, Vieira, Sousa, Jaime, Namaso, Franco, Gul, Fernandes, Borges, Rodrigo Mora
Starting XI: Onana, Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot, Casemiro, Eriksen, Diallo, Fernandes, Rashford, HojlundSubstitutes: Bayindir, Heaton, Evans, Lindelof, Maguire, Collyer, Gore, Ugarte, Antony, Garnacho, Zirkzee
Four changes for Erik ten Hag. 
Welcome to our coverage of Porto against Manchester United in this evening’s Europa League game. It would not be an understatement to say that United are a club in crisis, mind you that has been the case in one form or another for the last 10 years. The crisis at the moment is arguably worse than it has ever been because new owners came in earlier this year and have set about turning the club around. Yet the same problems on the pitch remain, whatever they have done on it. 
Since the start of the season proper (not including the Community Shield, where a 1-1 draw ended in a penalty shootout loss to rivals Man City), United have won three games from a possible eight – and one of those was a 7-0 League Cup victory over League One Barnsley. After his FA Cup victory over City in May (which was deserved), Erik ten Hag was given an effective vote of confidence by the Ineos management. Has he managed to repay that faith? No, with the same problems cropping up again. The team, in short, have not looked like much of a team. 
A home draw against FC Twente in the first Europa League game underlined this. A first-half collapse against Spurs at Old Trafford on Sunday proved it further. Things fall apart on the pitch far too easily, even before the going gets tough. With another international break approaching it is vital for Ten Hag that his side put in two good performances and, ideally, claim two victories. Aston Villa are Sunday’s opponents with United visitors to Villa Park but tonight comes FC Porto. Two losses and you think he might well be gone before they return to domestic action. It would not be undeserved. 
Both sides have significant European pedigree with Porto winning the Champions League/European Cup twice and this competition twice two. United have won the former three times and this one once. Porto come into this fixture in better form than their opponents (is that hard?) with six wins in eight games in all competitions, albeit having lost to Bodo/Glimt in their first European match. In fact, in the official list both sides have won seven Uefa competitions putting them just behind Atletico Madrid and Sevilla and ahead of Anderlecht and Valencia. 
As ever with United these days, this could be an eventful watch. The match at the Estadio do Dragao gets under way at 8pm BST and we will have the team news for you very shortly.