Jose Mourinho sent off as Man United left frustrated by Fenerbahce
by AFP · The42FENERBAHCE BOSS Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands as the Turks held his former club Manchester United 1-1 on Thursday to extend the English giants’ wait for a Europa League win.
United have drawn all three of their European games this season and a point does little to ease the pressure on under-fire manager Erik ten Hag.
Christian Eriksen fired a depleted United in front on 15 minutes, but Fenerbahce had the better of the chances and got their reward when Youssef En Nesyri equalised early in the second half.
A point leaves United languishing in 21st of the 36-team table and with their chances of securing a top-eight finish to progress directly to the last 16 fading.
Fenerbahce are in 14th on five points, with a top-24 finish enough to qualify for the playoff stage.
United were without 10 players, including captain Bruno Fernandes, due to suspension or injury.
Ten Hag said the players available to him were still capable of getting the job done but their failure to do so means United have not won a European game for a full year.
In Fernandes’ absence, defender Noussair Mazraoui started in an unfamiliar attacking midfield role and had a part to play in an impressive opening goal.
Manuel Ugarte dispossessed former United midfielder Fred to launch a counter-attack that involved Alejandro Garnacho and Mazraoui before Joshua Zirkzee teed up Eriksen to blast home from the edge of the area.
Marcus Rashford was inches away from doubling the visitors’ lead with a low shot that clipped the outside of the post after a jinking solo run.
However, for the third time in three Europa League matches, Ten Hag’s men failed to build on taking the lead.
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- Onana double-save -
Ugarte has struggled to establish himself since arriving in a £50 million (€60 million) deal from Paris Saint-Germain in August.
But the Uruguayan showed the defensive awareness that attracted United’s interest with a brilliant goal-saving challenge to deny Dusan Tadic a tap-in.
United also needed an excellent double save from Andre Onana to parry two En Nesyri headers to protect their lead at half-time.
It was wiped out within four minutes of the restart as more sloppy defending allowed En Nesyri to head in Allan Saint-Maximin’s inviting cross.
Fenerbahce were furious moments later when penalty appeals for a foul on Bright Osayi-Samuel were waived away.
Mourinho took his protestations too far as he was dismissed by experienced French referee Clement Turpin.
United had the better chances to snatch all three points in the closing stages as Dominik Livakovic was forced into saves from Mazraoui and Rasmus Hojlund.
There remains plenty of time for United to dig themselves out of trouble with five more favourable-looking Europa League fixtures to come against PAOK, Bodo Glimt, Viktoria Plzen, Rangers and FCSB.
However, whether Ten Hag will still be in charge for all of those fixtures remains a major doubt after winning just four of the Red Devils opening 12 games of the season.
Uefa Europa League matchday three results on Thursday:
Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) 1 (Larsson 79) Rigas FS (LAT) 0
Ferencvaros (HUN) 1 (Lumpungu 15-og) Nice (FRA) 0
Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR) 1 (Turgeman 82) Real Sociedad (ESP) 2 (Pacheco 19, Sergio Gomez 64)
Midtjylland (DEN) 1 (Diao 18) Union Saint-Gilloise (BEL) 0
PAOK (GRE) 2 (Tissoudali 84, Baba 90+3) Viktoria Plzen (CZE) 2 (Havel 31, Vydra 39)
Qarabag (AZE) 0 Ajax (NED) 3 (Taylor 36, Weghorst 74-pen, Akpom 77)
Roma (ITA) 1 (Dovbyk 23-pen) Dynamo Kyiv (UKR) 0
Anderlecht (BEL) 2 (Edozie 67, Dreyer 90+5) Ludogorets (BUL) 0
Athletic Bilbao (ESP) 1 (Williams 33) Slavia Prague (CZE) 0
Fenerbahce (TUR) 1 (En-Nesyri 49) Man Utd (ENG) 1 (Eriksen 15)
Malmo (SWE) 0 Olympiakos (GRE) 1 (El Kaabi 30)
Lyon (FRA) 0 Besiktas (TUR) 1 (Fernandes 71)
Porto (POR) 2 (Djalo 45+2, Samu 75) Hoffenheim (GER) 0
Rangers (SCO) 4 (Lawrence 10, Cerny 31, 55, Igmane 71) FCSB (ROM) 0
Tottenham (ENG) 1 (Richarlison 53-pen) AZ (NED) 0
Twente (NED) 0 Lazio (ITA) 2 (Pedro Rodríguez 35, Isaksen 87)