There’s all to play for next week at Old Trafford after Manchester United played out a 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad in a Europa League Round of 16 first leg match at San Sebastien on Thursday night.
Manchester United showed promise in the match, with Bruno Fernandes seeing a goal-bound effort cleared off the line by Aritz Elustondo as both teams went into the break goalless.
Joshua Zirkzee found the breakthrough for the Red Devils 12 minutes into the second half, meeting Alejandro Garnacho’s pass with a first-time strike from the edge of the box to open the scoring.
Ruben Amorim’s side gained a bit more confidence after the goal but were unable to add to their tally. A moment of misfortune saw Sociedad win a penalty after Bruno Fernandes was adjudged by VAR to have handled in the area.
Mikel Oyarzabal stepped up to send Andre Onana the wrong way and score the equaliser – his fifth in this season’s Europa League – after 70 minutes of play. Oyarzabal became La Real’s all-time Europa League top scorer with his ninth goal in the competition in that moment.
Orri Oskarsson and Brais Mendez went close for the home side late on but United held on for the draw, the fourth in seven meetings between both teams, as the last 16 tie remains well balanced ahead of next week’s return leg in Manchester.
Tottenham Hotspur on their part have their work cut out after losing 1-0 to AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands, going behind after a shot from former Spurs man, Troy Parrott, deflected off Lucas Bergvall for an own goal in the 18th minute.
Parrott had an opportunity to double the hosts’ lead later in the first half when through one-on-one with Guglielmo Vicario, but was denied by the goalkeeper’s leg. Spurs came close to snatching a late equaliser, but Wilson Odobert’s header whistled just over the goal.
In other Europa League Round of 16 first leg matches, Malick Fofana scored twice in the closing stages to give Olympique Lyon a 3-1 win at Steaua Bucharest and a solid advantage going into the home leg, while AS Roma came from a goal down to beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 at the Olimpico.