Manchester United became the only team to remain unbeaten in the Europa League group stages this season as they easily saw off FCSB’s challenge on Thursday, recording a 2-0 win at the National Arena at Bucharest.
The win meant they finished third in the group stage thereby securing direct progress through to the Round of 16. The victory was secured through second-half goals from Diogo Dalot and Kobbie Mainoo.
While the midfield magician will take home all the plaudits, Ruben Amorim will once again be pleased with the impact Alejandro Garnacho had on the game after coming on as a second-half substitute.
With so much transfer gossip floating around, it must not have been easy for the 20-year-old to keep his focus on the game at hand. Plenty of more experienced stars have their head turned with the numbers floating around but not the Argentine.
Great impact off the bench
United were quite slow with their tempo in the first-half, content to keep the ball and they did not really carve out too many clear-cut chances.
But the Argentina international changed all that and almost made an immediate impact as he intercepted a poor pass and ran straight at the FCSB goal only for his eventual effort to strike the post and trickle wide.
But the Carrington graduate is not one to let his head go down after a miss, and whenever he got the ball, he was always positive and took on his man, completing five dribbles, the most out of his teammates despite seeing only 45 minutes of action.
He picked up the assist for Mainoo’s goal and made two key passes and created one big chance. The United No 17 also saw one effort blocked.
Garnacho deserves to stay
As demanded by his head coach, the former Atletico Madrid starlet was a livewire out of possession as well, winning nine duels while winning four free-kicks with his clever and fast feet.
The left winger ended the game with 36 touches of the ball and an 84 percent passing accuracy. He also found a teammate with one long ball (all stats via sofascore).
Ever since Amorim snubbed him from the Manchester derby squad, Garnacho has fought his way back by listening to the coach and improving his off-field and on-field displays.
Despite a difficult season, he has 14 goal involvements this season and it would be a huge blow for the club to lose such a talented star, especially to a direct domestic rival like Chelsea.
Napoli are also lurking and it will be interesting to see where Garnacho ends up after February 3.
Feature image Vasili Mihai-Antonio via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
