Erik ten Hag speaks ...
“We started well, couple of chances and then an unecessary goal from a couple of mistakes that cannot happen,” the Manchester United boss tells BT Sport. “You have to take responsibility. Then we had a really bad 10 minutes and we have to learn from that.”
On his half-time changes: “Some couple of things because we were too static. More runs, we had to get in behind. That is why we made two subs in that time and they really had an impact. I think the subs had really an impact today."
Neil Lennon speaks ...
“We rode our luck a lot of times,” the Omonia manager tells BT Sport. “Whether it was good goalkeeping or United missing good chances and to score two goals against them is probably more than I could have imagined. Once we scored we started to believe in ourselves and it gave us something to hold on to. They got two quickfire goals but we had chances at 2-1 to get level and then the third goal has killed us. On the balance of play United thoroughly deserved to win.”
Match report: Omonia Nicosia 2-3 Manchester United
Europa League: Erik ten Hag applied a desperately required change to save Manchester United from a second humiliation in four days,” writes Jamie Jackson from the GSP Stadium. “Losing at the interval, the Dutchman brought on Marcus Rashford then and Anthony Martial a little later and they scored the goals that turned embarrassing defeat into Group E victory.”
Marcus Rashford speaks ...
“It’s defintiely job done but we would have liked to play better,” the man of the match tells BT Sport. “I wouldn’t say that we defended bad but it was just mistakes and they happen in football, so you just have to move on.”
On the first half [in which he did not play]: “In the first half we were playing well, we had good movement and we could probably have got in behind them a little more and had more threat on goal. When the manager made the subs he just wanted us to be a little bit more dynamic and take more chances going forward. We made positive changes at half-time and got back into the game.”
Elsewhere in Group E: Real Sociedad have beaten Sheriff 2-0 and go top of the group with nine points from three games. Manchester United sit in second place, three points clear of Sheriff. Omonia are bottom of the group and yet to get off the board.
Full time: Omonia Nicosia 2-3 Manchester United
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeeep! Having taken the most unlikely of first half leads against the run of play through Karim Ansarifard, Omonia Nicosia were punished by some shrewd substitutions by Erik Ten Hag. Marcus Rashford scored two and created one for Anthony Martial as United raced into a 3-1 second-half lead but they were given a fright by an Omonia Nicosia side who pulled a goal back towards the end of a fine home performance and deserve immense credit.
90+4 min: Omonia win a free-kick and loft the ball into the penalty area. It’s cleared and that’s it. Manchester United have won, by the skin of their teeth.
90+3 min: Ronaldo sprints into the Omonia penalty area with the ball at his feet. A Cruyff turn later, he curls a shot wide of the upright before unleashing a “barbaric yawp” of frustration into the heavens over Cyprus.
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90+1 min: Instead of shooting himself, Rashford tries to tee up Ronaldo for the 700th club goal of his career. The wait goes on …
90 min: Their tails up, Omonia plug on in search of an equaliser but get caught on the break. Cristiano Ronaldo receives a pass from Anthony Martial on the left side of the home side’s penalty area but is forced to check his run before running into traffic and is eventually crowded off the ball.
88 min: Fred has a long range effort saved by Fabiano in the Omonia goal.
GOAL! Omonia Nicosia 2-3 Manchester United (Panagiotou 85)
Omonia score again! They cut through Manchester United like a hot knife through butter and Kakouliiis squares the ball for Panagiotou, who fires past David De Gea.
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GOAL! Omonia Nicosia 1-3 Manchester United (Rashford 84)
United stretch their lead. Was it a low diagonal shot from Ronaldo or was it a cross? Only he knows but whatever it was, Marcus Rashford is on hand to tap home at the far post from three or four yards out.
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82 min: Martial tries to play Ronaldo in behind with a weighted pass that’s superbly cut out by Hector Yuste. Excellent defending. Having missed so many chances, not least that open goal a couple of minutes ago, Ronaldo is cutting a forlorn figure.
81 min: Kakoullis is played down the inide left and wins a corner for Omonia. Nothing comes of it. Manchester United substitution: Scott McTominay on for Casemiro.
77 min: Chance! Teed up by Dalot, with the Omonia goalkeeper out of the equation and the goal he’s supposed to be guarding empty and gaping, Cristiano Ronaldo somehow spanks the ball against the upright. An astonishing miss.
76 min: Rashford holds the ball up on the left side of the Omonia penalty area and plays it forward to shaw on the overlap. He squares it across the face of goal but Omonia clear.
75 min: Just on for Antony, Fred handles the ball in his own penalty area but it’s completely accidental and the offending limb is hanging by his side. Omonia’s players and fans appeal for a penalty but don’t get one.
73 min: Bruno Felipe, so instrumental in the build-up to Omonia’s goal, is substituted after a good performance but jogs off shaking his head in frustration after missing that wonderful chance to restore parity. He’s replaced by Loizos Loizou.
69 min: Bruno misses a glorious opportunity to level proceedings for Omonia. Running on to a through ball and with David De Gea in no-man’s land, the Brazilian tries to lift the ball over the goalkeeper and into the net but make’s a pig’s ear of his effort. De Gea saves comfortably.
67 min: A few seconds before that goal, the Omonia midfielder Charalamoros Charalampous got booked for a foul on Casemiro.
65 min: It’s a deft piece of improvised backheeled inspiration from Marcus Rashford, who plays the ball into his fellow substitute’s path. The Frenchman cuts inside and drills the ball into the bottom left-hand corner from the edge of the penalty area.
GOAL! Omonia Nicosia 1-2 Manchester United (Martial 63)
Martial scores immediately! It’s an inspired substitution from Erik Ten Hag, who sends Anthony Martial on to score with what must have been his first touch.
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61 min: Omonia double-substitution: Brandon Barker and Karim Ansarifard off, Kakoullis and Papoulis on. Manchester United substitution: Anthony Martial on for Bruno Fernandes.
59 min: United win themselves a corner, their relief after equalising palpable. Christian Eriksen raises his left arm and sends the ball into the Omonia penalty area, where it’s cleared by the head of Bruno Felipe.
56 min: After a long spell in which United had pinged the ball around the edge of the Omonia penalty area probing for an opening, Antony finds a yard of space and tries his luck. He curls his shot high and wide of the far post.
GOAL! Omonia Nicosia 1-1 Manchester United (Rashford 53)
Rashford equalises! He picks up a wonderful ball from deep, cuts inside Miletic, the defender, takes advantage of the space created by Ronaldo’s decoy run and curls a fine shot inside the far post. Great finish.
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52 min: A free-kick for Manchester United, about 30 yards from goal, alm ost dead centre. Bruno Fernades whips the ball straight at the Omonia goalkeeper.
51 min: Manchester United look nervy and geuinely rattled in the early stages of this second half and who can blame them? There’s a long way to go but they’re staring down the barrel of what would could be total humiliation.
48 min: Antony cuts in from the right and tries a shot from distance. It’s blocked by Omonia central defender Hector Yuste.
47 min: Victor Lindelof plays a long diagonal from deep trying to pick out a Luke Shaw run down the inside left. The pass is overhit and the ball sails wide.
Second half: Omonia Nicosia 1-0 Manchester United
46 min: Play resumes with Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford on for Jadon Sancho and Tyrell Malacia, who were both culpable for Omonia’s goal.
An email: “Can we take a minute to notice that the goal scored by Omonia was down to Sancho messing around with the ball, turning away from goal and playing a hospital pass to Malacia,” writes Jay. “Like many before him, he is still waiting to show his best form on a consistent basis for United.”
Half-time: Omonia Nicosia 1-0 Manchester United
Peep! Having defended heroically, ridden their luck a little and barely got the ball out of their own penalty area, let alone their own half, on more than a few occasions in the first half, Omonia Nicosia lead courtesy of an excellent goal scored on the break by Karim Ansarifard. Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Manchester United dressing-room …
45 min: Having taken the lead, the fourth best team in Cyprus are growing into the game as this strong Manchester United line-up face the humiliation of going in at half-time a goal down after dominating the game completely. How has this happened?
43 min: Manchester United win a corner but the delivery from Christian Eriksen is poor. The ball is hoofed clear.
38 min: As his side take a free-kick from wide on the left, Omonia midfielder Jan Lecjaks has the shirt almost pulled off his back by Lisandro Martinez in the Manchester United penalty area. It should be a spot-kick for the hosts but none is forthcoming from referee Joao Pinheiro.
35 min: That was incredible. Swarmed by two Omonia players, Tyrell Malacia lost the ball halfway inside his own half and set off in futile pursuit as Bruno Felipe galloped upfield with his afterburners on. He played the ball in behind to the Iranian Karim Ansarifard, who just about stayed onside and roofed it past De Gea. Splendid stuff.
GOAL!!! Omonia Nicosia 1-0 Manchester United (Ansarifard 33)
Incredible scenes! Having been completely under the cosh for the past 33 minutes, Omonia take the lead on the back of a lightning fast counter-attack.
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31 min: Omonia win a corner. They play it short but a routine straight from the training ground obviously didn’t spend enough time on the training ground. Wide.
30 min: Christian Eriksen tries to pick out Ronaldo with a cross to the far post. Omonia goalkeeper Fabiano darts of his line to pluck the ball from the air.
29 min: From the edge of the Omonia penalty area, Dalot plays a ball in behind to Ronaldo. He squares it across the edge of the six-yard box but there’s nobody there to poke it home. Cue a minor fit of petulance and arm-waving from his Lordship.
27 min: Another fine save from Omonia goalkeeper Fabiano, who dives to his right to palm a curled effort from Antony that was heading for his top right-hand corner wide. Nothing comes from the corner.
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25 min: Nemanja Miletic rakes his studs down the back of Cristiano Ronaldo’s achilles and Manchester United have a free-kick about 25 yards from the Omonia goal, slightly left of centre. Ronaldo stands over the ball and given his atrocious record with free-kicks, you almost certainly don’t need me to tell you that he sends it sailing high and wide of the Omonia goal.
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24 min: Having weathered an early Manchester United storm that lasted for the first quarter of the match, Omonia finally get the ball out of their own half for what seems like the first time since kick-off.
21 min: Tyrell Malacia lofts a cross from the left into the Omonia penalty area but it’s too high for Ronaldo, who isn’t happy with the delivery.
18 min: Another United attack. They scythe through the home defence and Ronaldo plays the ball wide to Fernandes, who lifts it over the goalkeeper and watches in horror as it drops on to the cross-bar.
16 min: Antony finds himself in a one-on-one with Fabiano, who commits himself. Instead of shooting, Antony opts to sidefoot a pass to Fernandes. It’s wayward and goes behind the Portuguese midfielder, who can barely contain his frustration.
15 min: Ronaldo combines with Jadon Sancho in the Omonia penalty area and toe-pokes a shot straight at Fabiano, who blocks with his legs.
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13 min: I didn’t give Omonia goalkeeper Fabiano the credit he deserved in the eighth minute. Having seen a replay, Ronaldo didn’t exactly fizz the ball straight at him, it was in fact a splendid save. Apologies, Fabiano.
12 min: United pass the ball around the edge of the Omonia penalty area with two lines of four defenders in front of them.
10 min: Omonia goalkeeper Fabiano rushes out of his area to larrup the ball into the stand before Ronaldo can beat him to it. United are completely in the ascendency, as you might expect.
8 min: Antony plays the ball wide to Cristiano Ronaldo, who is looking for his 700th career club goal. It doesn’t come here, as he shoots straight at Omonia goalkeeper Fabiano from a decent position on the inside left. Saved.
7 min: Tyrell Malacia tees up Bruno Fernades on the edge of the Omonia penalty area but his rasping shot is blocked. United are dominating possession and their hosts are dropping deep, getting plenty of men behind the ball.
5 min: Not much of note to report so far as Wales international Adam Matthews hoofs a bouncing ball clear for Omonia from the edge of his own penalty area.
3 min: United win an early corner conceded byNemanja Miletic under pressure from Bruno Fernandes. Christian Eriksen swings the ball into the penalty area and Omonia clear.
Omonia Nicosia v Manchester United is go ...
1 min: Following a minute’s silence for the victims of the Kanjuruhan Stadium disaster in Malang, East Java last weekend that wasn’t particularly well observed, the home side get the ball rolling.
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Not long now: The teams are out and standing either side of Joao Pinheiro and his team of match officials. Omonia are wearing green and white stripes, white shorts and white socks, colours their manager Neil Lennon is all too familiar with. The visitors from Manchester United wear red shirts, black shorts and black socks. Kick-off is just a minute away.
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That Manchester United team: There are three changes to the side that lined up to such devastating effect against Manchester City on Sunday. As expected, Victor Lindelof makes a rare start in place of the injured Raphael Varane, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Casemiro are picked ahead of Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay, who are on the bench.
Omonia Nicosia v Manchester United line-ups
Omonia Nicosia: Fabiano, Matthews, Miletic, Yuste, Lang, Lecjaks, Diskerud, Charalambous, Barker, Bruno, Ansarifard.
Subs: Kontomis, Loizou, Papoulis, Kitsos, Zachariou, Uzoho, Panagiotou, Kakoullis, Bezus.
Manchester United Utd: De Gea, Dalot, Lindelof, Martinez, Malacia, Casemiro, Eriksen, Antony, Bruno Fernandes, Sancho, Ronaldo.
Subs: Martial, Rashford, Fred, Heaton, Shaw, Pellistri, Dubravka, Elanga, McTominay, Garnacho, Iqbal.
Tonight's match officials
Referee: João Pinheiro
Assistant referees: Bruno Jesus and Luciano Maia
Fourth official: António Nobre
Video Assistant Referee: Luis Godinho
Early team news
Having stated that he didn’t want to introduce Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United’s 6-3 shellacking at the hands of Manchester City off the bench last weekend “out of respect for his career”, it will be intriguing to see if Erik Ten Hag considers tonight’s match to be beneath the Portuguese striker. It seems unlikely, as Ronaldo has started both of United’s previous group games against Sociedad and Sheriff.
With Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane both sidelined, there’s a vacany in the heart of United’s defence alongside Lisandro Martinez that is likely to be filled by Victor Lindelof. Donny van de Beek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who might have expected some game time here if fit, also remain absent with injury. Recruited from Newcastle on loan during the summer, Martin Dubravka has recovered from a muscle injury sustained on international duty with Slovakia and could conceivably make his Manchester United deb ut tonight.
Omonia midfielder Moreto Cassama, who has Ligue1 experience with Reims, remains a major doubt but former Reading and Rangers winger Brandon Barker could feature for the hosts. Former Celtic striker Gary Hooper, 34, joined Omonia on a free transfer last month after six months without a club since leaving Wellington Phoenix but has yet to make his debut as he is not fit enough. Former Cardiff, Celtic, Sunderland, Charlton and Wales international full-back Adam Matthews is also at the Cypriot club.
Group E: Omonia Nicosia v Manchester United
With one win and one defeat from two Europa League games to their name this season, Manchester United find themselves in Cyprus ahead of tonight’s match against Omonia Nicosia, who sit bottom of the group without a point to their name after defeats at the hands of FC Sheriff and Real Sociedad.
The 23,000-capacity GSP Stadium in Strovolos, Nicosia is the venue for tonight’s set-to, where the home side, managed by the occasionally combustible touchline presence that is Neil Lennon, are massive underdogs despite their home advantage. Kick-off in Cyprus is at 5.45pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
