Postpublished at 26 mins

26 mins

Man Utd 0-0 Zorya Luhansk

No nonsense from Manchester United defender Eric Bailly - pronounced Ba-yi.

He comes through the back of Zeljko Ljubenovic with an uncompromising tackle and gets a talking to from referee Orel Grinfeld.

Zorya's free-kick from the left comes to nothing though.

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho is not happy on the touchline, gesturing at a Zorya player for seemingly going down too easily under a Zlatan Ibrahimovic challenge.

The former Chelsea boss needs to point at his players and tell them to move the ball a little quicker, rather slow play from the Premier League side and Zorya's defenders are having a comfortable evening in Manchester.

Image source, AP

Simon Stone
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

There was a bit of chatter around the likely crowd for tonight's game.

Manchester United have closed the top tiers of the East Stand and the Sir Alex Ferguson stands.

There are still plenty of people here though - including quite a few children - and I would think there are more here than the 43673 who came to watch a League Cup tie against Barnet in October 2005, which is the lowest crowd since the stadium was reconfigured.

Image source, Reuters

A reminder Sergio Romero is in goal for Manchester United this evening. The ballboy at the side of the pitch has seen more action than him though.

Thunderbolt of a strike from Marcus Rashford and that crossbar will be shaking into next week.

The ball drops inside the area for the young Englishman and he takes it on the bounce, but his arrowed, missile of an effort shudders the woodwork and rolls away. The goalkeeper dived for it, but it may have broken his hand if he managed to save it.

The closest either side have come to scoring so far.

Ooh, the goalkeeper is worried here and unsure if it's going in or over.

Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is invited to shoot from a long way out, and the Swede accepts. The ball takes a nick off a sliding Zorya defender and dips narrowly over the crossbar.

No, the visitors swing in a cross which Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini heads away...

...and the hosts break to the other end to earn a corner of their own.

Zorya defend it stoutly though and United have had 80% of the possession so far.

Image source, Reuters

Zorya Luhansk earn a corner as Vladyslav Kulach plays the ball off right-back Timothy Fosu-Mensah.

Can they make anything of it?

Zorya Luhansk look really dangerous on the counter-attack and all their play in the final third is going through Ivan Petriak, who is a Mikael Forssell lookalike.

He slides through a ball behind the Manchester United defence which Olexandr Karavaev pulls back, but Chris Smalling gets back to head the ball away from goal.

The Red Devils back four will need to stay awake.

A familiar face is in the crowd today.

Wonder if he needs a ticket to get into the SIR ALEX FERGUSON STAND...

"Ticket please Sir?"

"You what? This section is mine, all mine!"

Image source, Reuters

Manchester United get a corner which Juan Mata swings in and Marouane Fellaini rises to get his head on it, but it lacks direction and drifts wide of goal.

Image source, Reuters

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho is snarling on the touchline and kicks the ball as it runs out of play.

On the pitch, young star Marcus Rashford gets a chance to stretch his legs for the first time on the right edge of the box, but Rafael Forster skirts across to snuff out the danger.

Image source, AFP

Zorya Luhansk get up field towards the Stretford End for the first time and should really be ahead.

A ball is played in behind Timothy Fosu-Mensah at right-back which the blonde-haired Ivan Petriak gets onto, before pulling it back on the edge of the box.

However, with no defender around him, Zeljko Ljubenovic's left-footed strike goes high over the crossbar.

A let off for the hosts.

This time Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, with a lightning bolt shaved into the side of his head, attempts a ball from left to right, but it has too much on it and Juan Mata's little legs can't scamper quickly enough to get on the end of it.

All United so far.

Opening couple of minutes and world record signing Paul Pogba has already had around four or five touches of the ball, including a sumptuous cross field ball to the left.

Visitors Zorya Luhansk have not had a sniff yet.

Under way at a chilly Old Trafford, with the winter nights closing in. Let's hope the action warms us up a little.

Image source, Reuters

Simon Stone
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho doesn't like it when the focus of attention is on players he doesn't pick rather than those he does. But it is always an interesting subject for debate.

As Mourinho flagged up Wayne Rooney's possible absence from his starting line-up for tonight's Europa League tie against Zorya Luhansk on Wednesday, Matteo Darmian is a name that stands out - or rather it doesn't because it is not there.

A £12.7m arrival from Torino in the summer of 2015, Darmian started the opening group game against Feyenoord a fortnight ago, his only appearance of the season.

He was an unused substitute in last week's EFL Cup win at Northampton. The Italy defender doesn't even make the bench this evening. Darmian, 26, has been linked with a return to Italy.   

Image source, Reuters

Thanks JJ for talking us through the thriller in Israel.

As for Zorya Luhansk, if Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is struggling with info on the Ukrainians, what hope do the rest of us have?

We'll find out more on the visitors soon, with kick-off at Old Trafford less than five minutes away.

The players have barely disappeared down the tunnel but it is time for me to sign out. We're making a tactical switch as the fresh legs of Shamoon Hafez come on. He'll talk you through Manchester United's home game against Zorya Luhansk... And hopefully he will tell us who the visitors are exactly.