It was a game that meant near nothing following United’s dominance in the first leg, but the heavily changed Reds remained professional and saw off an adventurous LASK side 2-1 on Thursday night.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side cruised to a 5-0 victory over in Austria in the premier fixture of this tie, meaning the rematch at Old Trafford was really just a formality.
With United needing three more wins from the mini-tournament like trip to Germany next week in order to lift the Europa League trophy, Thursday was a chance for the boss to give some much needed minutes to the squad players who hadn’t featured a lot during the post-lockdown madness.
“We learned that the players need to play in order to keep their sharpness,” Solskjaer told BT Sport after the match. “They haven’t played for a while some of these lads, and it showed. But also, we win again, we gave another debut, so it was a good night.”
Following a lackluster first-half, United went behind after the break following a wonder strike from LASK’s Philipp Wiesinger, but the hosts brushed the setback off and came back with two strikes of their own to secure the victory in a much improved second-half effort.
It was the first match back in two weeks, so the Reds were understandably rusty, but a phenomenal first time ball from Juan Mata into Jesse Lingard saw the Reds pull level with the Englishman’s second goal in as many games in all competitions.
United struggled with the final ball all night, but they had just enough quality in them to see the game off following the late introduction of Anthony Martial as the Frenchman played a clever one-two with Mata before slotting the ball under the visitors keeper to round off a very sharp cameo.
“For me, this was a good exercise. Job done, minutes under the belt, and we are ready to travel.”
In the interview, Solskjaer also touched on a couple of other topics, including the debut of promising 18-year-old Teden Mengi and the smiles that were exchanged between himself and Martial following the Frenchman’s late winner.
On Mengi, Solskjaer said that “He’s (Mengi) a leader. He is one that we believe in from the same age group as Mason (Greenwood), they’ve grown up together. He’s strong, quick, good on the ball. I think we’ve got a decent player there.”
Regarding Martial, the manager expressed his desire to come out of Old Trafford victorious and that Martial was “begging” him to come on, promising a goal — which the No. 9 indeed delivered to put his tally for the season in all competitions to 23.
The manager also confirmed that Alexis Sanchez will join Inter Milan on a permanent basis. “He enjoyed his time there (at Inter) and they have liked him so that’s a good move for him — he’s a top player, we want to see play his best football. For whatever reason we didn’t see the best of him, he’s a top professional.”
Up next for United, a clash against Denmark’s Copenhagen in the competitions quarter-final on Monday.
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