LASK 0-1 Man Utd LIVE: Odion Ighalo STUNNER, Europa League score and updates

LASK 0-1 MAN UTD

45: And we’re back underway folks. Doesn’t look like any changes for either side. I really think Manchester United could fill their boots tonight and kill this off before the second leg.

LASK 0-1 MAN UTD

HT: Manchester United bossing proceedings and deservedly take a one-goal lead in with them at the break courtesy of Odion Ighalo’s cracker. LASK? They aren’t up to much.

44: Nice interplay from the hosts results in Odion Ighalo flicking the ball back for fellow January recruit Bruno Fernandes, who doesn’t catch it properly. Harry Maguire follows that up with a header of his own which he guides wide of the target.

41: Frieser, pronounced Freezer, nearly sends a chill down the spine of Manchester United fans. Terrible pun and I’m sorry. Anyway, the ball falls kindly for him at the back post and his low drive is blocked by Eric Bailly.

39: Bruno Fernandes has been involved in more Europa League goals than any other player this season, with the Portuguese netting six goals and providing four assists with Sporting CP and Manchester United combined.

38: Crafty foul from Eric Bailly, who executed a back heel foul very effectively to bring down Frieser. The resulting set-piece is sent straight out of play for the second time tonight. Dreadful deliveries.

35: Surely this can’t be all LASK have to offer? They are leading RB Salzburg by six points in the Austrian top division but look completely bereft of ideas and quality. I sense this could be done and dusted in the first leg.

33: Booked! Gernot Trauner, who is 27 and looks like a 40-year-old plumber, accidentally swings his arm into the face of Odion Ighalo. He’s shown a yellow as the Nigerian international gets back to his feet. Incidentally, Odion Ighalo has scored in all three of his starts in all competitions for Manchester United, netting four goals in total.

30: You could see the entire Manchester United bench celebrate, before turning around and watching the replay on the big screen together.

LASK 0-1 MAN UTD | IGHALO

28: GOAL! What a goal! What an absolute peach from Odion Ighalo! The January loanee collects the ball just outside the LASK penalty area before flicking it up twice and lashing in off the underside of the bar on the half-volley. Stunner.

27: Close! Daniel James has now gone 32 games without a goal and it looks like that could be extended if LASK goalkeeper Schlager continues in this form. The Welshman fizzes a low effort on target that Schlager dives to palm away to safety.

24: The Austrian hosts take a quick, well-worked free-kick. It’s a crafty one, straight from the training ground but there’s nobody in the six-yard box to attack the cross. It looks like they’ve done their homework though – United have been incredibly effective at defending aerial balls recently.

21: Wide! Bruno Fernandes nutmegs his marker to release Luke Shaw, who clips a floated cross into the box. LASK goalkeeper Schlager flaps at it and parries it straight to Juan Mata, whose effort is deflected just wide.

18: Brandon Williams, who is operating at right-back, thumps the ball across the field to Luke Shaw. The United full-back looks to pick out Juan Mata but knocks the ball behind for a goal kick. This is utterly dire.

15: LASK’s Brazilian forward Klauss strides beyond Harry Maguire and tip-toes his way inside the penalty area before going down after contact with the England centre-back. Referee Artur Soraes Dias isn’t interested, nor am I after seeing the replay.

13: Being able to hear the players’ shouts to each other is bizarre. Being able to hear someone ordering Nachos in the concourse is also weird. Ok, I’m exaggerating but you get what I mean. This feels like a training session.

10: That was a huge opportunity for the visitors as Bruno Fernandes picks out Juan Mata beautifully with searching diagonal pass. The Spanird laid it back for the onrushing Daniel James but Ramsebner just pokes it away.

8: LASK have a free-kick over on the right touchline. A few of the Austrian giants bundle into the area but Peter Michorl bangs it straight out of play. Terrible delivery and a real waste considering their threat from set-pieces.

5: Bruno Fernandes drives forward unopposed. He shapes to have a shot but cuts inside before laying it off for Fred to hammer miles over the crossbar. I was waiting for the “wheyyyyy” from supporters but it never arrived for obvious reasons.

3: Wow. I know there have been a few games played behind closed doors recently but this is the first that I’ve watched. Just eerily silent. Must be difficult for the players to get up for it.

And that kind of shows in these opening minutes. Manchester United are shading the possession stats but haven’t created anything of note.

LASK 0-0 MAN UTD

1: And we’re underway at an empty stadium in Austria. That was a weird sentence. I say empty, there are around 500 people in there and they’ve all decided to sit next to each other – making the decision to lower the attendance nearly pointless.

It’s so strange. You can actually hear a small child crying.

Twitter round up

Reuben: People will be in for a surprise LASK aren’t as bad as people think. They are top of the Austrian League with Salzburg in and topped a group with PSV and Sporting battering them at home. Still anything other than a win is a bad result.

Jamie: Not long until Manchester United kick-off. Going to enjoy this as much as I possibly can considering we probably won’t see our team play for over a month after this!

Charles: No Jesse Lingard on the bench for United. That lad is first out the door in the summer. Ole is making it clear to him he has no at the club!

No contact or concern

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed that there has been no contact from United to UEFA today about possibly calling this game off. He adds that none of the players have raised any concerns.

LASK Form

The European campaign started by beating Basel in the Champions League third qualifying round but defeat to Club Brugge – the side United overcame in the round of 32 – saw them drop into the Europa League.

The Austrian side topped a group including Sporting Lisbon, who had Bruno Fernandes playing for them, as well as PSV Eindhoven and Rosenborg.

LASK beat AZ Alkmaar, who finished runners-up to United in their group, in the round of 32, while on the domestic front they sit six points ahead of much-admired Red Bull Salzburg at the top of the Austrian Bundesliga.

LASK coach

Valerien Ismael succeeded Wolfsburg-bound Oliver Glasner as LASK head coach in the summer, signing a three-year deal with the club.

The Frenchman started his career with hometown club Strasbourg before a short spell in English football with Crystal Palace.

Ismael enjoyed his greatest success in Germany, where he won the domestic double with both Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich.

The 44-year-old, who was reserve coach at Hannover and Wolfsburg, has had stints as first-team manager of Nurnberg, Wolfsburg and Greek side Apollon Smyrnis.

Season over? Ole wouldn’t object

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have no complaints if the season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Asked if he would understand it if the Europa League and Premier League were cut short and not played out, United boss Solskjaer said: “I would understand yes, under the circumstances.

“It’s up to the experts to decide and the main concern must be the health of the general public and the decision that will be made we’ll back.

“Of course, these are difficult circumstances – not just for football, but in the whole society. So, for us, we just have to do what we’re told and get on with the game if the authorities think that’s what we should do.”

Sporting postponements…

Blimey, there’s quite a few and many more being discussed. UEFA have called an emergency meeting for Tuesday where they’ll discuss the possibility of postponing Euro 2020 by one year.

Manchester City’s Champions League last-16, second-leg tie with Real Madrid and Juventus’ match against Lyon next week have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

La Liga, Serie A and the MLS have all been suspended for at least another two weeks. Basketball’s NBA has also been suspended.

And Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK government is considering banning sporting fixtures.

You can find our more about this elsewhere on the website.

Sshhh…

D’ya see that on Sunday? Portugal midfielder Bruno Fernandes put his fingers to his lips after arguing with Pep Guardiola on the touchline.

And he’s now come out to explain what is now described as “sshhh-gate.”

“At that moment the words he told me made me mad… I have respect for Pep & what he wins & what he did for football. But I think in that moment, he didn’t respect me, so he didn’t deserve my respect at that moment on the pitch,” Fernandes said.

You can’t win with kids…

No team has had more different goal scorers in the Europa League this season than Manchester United (excluding own goals), with 18-year-old Mason Greenwood the Red Devils’ highest scorer in the competition this term with four.

Twitter round-up

Gas: Five changes from the Manchester derby win, which was inevitable, as a number of players looked extremely worn out. Like that Bruno is starting again, although I’m surprised Greenwood isn’t in. A great chance to win the tie tonight, whatever that shall ultimately mean.

Daniel: When will Harry Maguire get a rest?! Also we better not be burning out Bruno Fernandes either. Then again, this could be our last game this season and if it is, let’s end it on a high!

DMF: Last game of football ever played at Old Trafford before Coronavirus ended the world was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United beating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 2-0. I’ll take it.

Starting XI

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made five alterations for Manchester United’s Europa League clash at LASK.

Sergio Romero replaced David De Gea in goal, with Eric Bailly coming into the Reds’ backline.

Scott McTominay, Juan Mata and Odion Ighalo were the other alterations at the empty Linzer Stadion.

LASK XI: Schlager, Trauner, Ramsebner, Ranflt, Holland, Tetteh, Michorl, Renner, Frieser, Reiter, Klauss.

Subs: Gebauer, Balic, Muller, Wostry, Haudum, Raguz, Sabitzer.

Manchester United XI: Romero, Williams, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw, Fred, McTominay, Mata, Fernandes, James, Ighalo.

Subs: De Gea, Lindelof, Tuanzebe, Pereira, Matic, Chong, Greenwood.

The tourist board…

Just having a look at the tourist board to see what the top 10 attractions are in Linz.

Straight in at number one is The Ars Electronica Centre. They describe it as: “Amazing. If you are a technology nerd… it will be like heaven.”

After that there’s a list of about five cathedrals and in at number eight is… “Enjoy a piece of delicious Linz Cake.”

Might have to give Linz a miss this summer folks. I’ll stick to a week in Magaluf…

European history

This is the biggest match in LASK’s history, according to the club president Siegmund Gruber.

The Linz-based club are enjoying their longest ever European campaign, having never before tasted springtime continental football.

With reaching the second round of the UEFA Cup in 1984-85 and 1985-86 their previous best in continental competition, LASK have far exceeded that by reaching the Europa League round of 16.

Afternoon…

Hello everyone and welcome to our LIVE coverage of LASK vs Manchester United from the Linzer Stadion.

Every other sporting event under the sun appears to have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus – but Europa League mediocrity waits for no pandemic.

And for that reason, United’s first leg of the last 16 clash in Austria goes ahead behind closed doors.

Under the measures announced by the Austrian government, the crowd at tonight’s eagerly-anticipated Europa League clash was reduced from a 14,000 sell-out to just 500 spectators.

In other words, It’ll be like watching your local side, or Manchester City at the Etihad.

Anyway, team news is imminent. Standby…