Amad Diallo’s second-half double gave Manchester United the win they needed over Greek champions PAOK to kick-start their Europa League campaign and give incoming boss Ruben Amorim a shot at sealing a coveted top-eight finish.
Amad was by far United’s biggest goal threat. He broke the deadlock when he sent a looping header into the far corner five minutes after the interval.
The Ivorian sealed the win when he curled home from the edge of the area 13 minutes from time.
Tarik Tissoudali wasted PAOK’s best opportunity when he failed to convert from eight yards with only Andre Onana to beat.
Onana also made an acrobatic save to deny Mady Camara during a largely drab opening half.
The victory was United’s second in their past 12 European games and their first this season after starting the expanded Europa League competition with three successive draws.
Their next game in the competition, against Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in three weeks’ time, will be Amorim’s first home game as head coach.
A largely unconvincing display from the home side was in marked contrast to that of Amorim’s current club, with Sporting producing a superb performance to beat Manchester City in the Champions League earlier in the week.
But if there is a positive from tonight for Amorim, at least he has plenty to work at in his new job and quite a lot of scope for improvement among his players.
Two-goal Amad catches the eye
The jury is still out on whether Amad is good enough to be effective on a consistent basis for United.
But without question, he is their biggest current goal threat. Not everything he tries comes off but he is brave enough to keep trying and tends not to overcomplicate situations, or lose his concentration, like Alejandro Garnacho.
His efforts seem to earn favour from skipper Bruno Fernandes, whose response to Amad overhitting a routine pass was to offer encouragement, which was in marked contrast to the criticism the Portuguese unloaded on Garnacho, when he failed to release the ball quickly enough later in the first-half.
As one of the smallest players on the pitch, Amad can be quite pleased with his opener.
Fernandes provided the deep cross and Amad looped it back into the far corner as PAOK goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski watched the ball drop in rather than attempt to keep it out.
Amad’s second was all his own work as he muscled Abdul Rahman Baba off the ball 40 yards from the PAOK goal, then ran to the edge of the area before curling a shot, that took a tiny deflection, into the corner.
After making such an impact, Amad must hope the knock he suffered and needed treatment on immediately before being replaced does not prove to be too serious.
Top-eight spot target for Amorim
After experiencing the thrills of Sporting’s amazing 4-1 victory against Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday, Amorim knows he will be engaged in more mundane European fare, at least in the short-term, this season.
Following on from the Bodo/Glimt match, there are trips to face Czech side Viktoria Plzen and Romanians FCSB, either side of hosting Scottish giants Rangers.
The key target from those four games is moving up from their current 15th place into the top eight. That will mean United avoid the February play-offs in this expanded 36-team competition and qualify straight into the last-16 in March.
The knock-on benefit is freeing up a couple of midweeks that could prove priceless for Amorim when it comes to actually working with his new charges because he would have an incredible seven midweek games in his first eight weeks should his side beat Tottenham in the EFL Cup quarter-final on 19 December.
However, Amad’s efforts apart, it is not entirely clear who will score enough goals to make United consistently competitive and move them up the table.
Yet again, Rasmus Hojlund failed to find the target. His only decent chance was a first-half header that he failed to connect properly with and succeeded only in sending it straight to Kotarski.
But this was another good night for Ruud van Nistelrooy, who now has two wins and a draw from his three games in interim charge, although sacked Erik ten Hag might conclude he could have achieved the same results if United’s ownership had kept faith with him a little longer.
