Man Utd starts Europa League at home against Twente

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Manchester United stumbled to a 1-1 draw at home to FC Twente in their opening Europa League game on Wednesday after Christian Eriksen scored a goal but then made a mistake that led to the equaliser.

The Denmark international gave United the lead with a powerful first-half strike on a soaking wet night at Old Trafford, before Sam Lammers equalised for Twente in the 68th minute after Eriksen was caught in possession.

United manager Erik ten Hag assembled a strong team for the match against Twente. The Dutchman came from the club’s youth team and played three times as a player before joining the Eredivisie team as a coach.

Marcus Rashford returned to the lineup after coming off the bench in Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace, with Harry Maguire replacing Matthijs de Ligt in defence and Manuel Ugarte taking the place of Kobbie Mainoo.

United were lucky early on when Lammers narrowly missed after poor play from Diogo Dalot, before Twente goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall made a brilliant save to prevent Mees Hilgers from flying into his own net.

However, he was clearly beaten by Eriksen’s lightning strike after the ball passed to the midfielder in Twente’s penalty area.

After about an hour, Andre Onana diverted a low free kick from Sem Steijn around the post, but Twente equalised when former Rangers striker Lammers took the ball from Eriksen, ran through and fired the ball home.

Unnerstall tipped Joshua Zirkzee’s fierce shot over the bar and Bruno Fernandes came close. In stoppage time, Unnerstall made a great reflex save to save a Maguire header that had been deflected off Gijs Besselink.

United ultimately had to settle for a disappointing point to start the new 36-team league phase, which follows the format of the revamped Champions League.

Porto, winners of the second-tier European competition in 2003 and 2011, lost 3-2 away to Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt, who played with ten men for most of the second half.

Ruben van Bommel, the son of former Dutch international Mark, scored twice for AZ Alkmaar in a 3-2 win over Swedish side Elfsborg, with former Tottenham striker Troy Parrott scoring the winning goal from the penalty spot.

Mauro Icardi’s last-gasp goal secured Galatasaray’s 3-1 victory over PAOK in Istanbul, while Nice rued a missed penalty in their 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad.

Ander Barrenetxea put La Real ahead before Pablo Rosario equalised just before half-time, but Evann Guessand’s second-half penalty was saved for the hosts.

Slavia Prague won 2-0 away at Bulgarian club Ludogorets, Danish champions Midtjylland played 1-1 against Hoffenheim and Anderlecht won 2-1 against Hungarian club Ferencvaros.

Boulaye Dia scored twice in Lazio’s 3-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv in Hamburg, with a player being sent off on both sides.