Anthony Martial scored from the penalty spot as Manchester United ground out a 1-0 Europa League victory at Partizan Belgrade. Goals remain a problem for United though and they have scored just twice in their three Europa League games this season and only 10 times in their nine Premier League encounters.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made seven changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Liverpool on Sunday with 18-year-old James Garner starting the match.
Takuma Asano’s early long-range shot for Partizan flew over the bar before United midfielder Scott McTominay contrived to head the ball into the side-netting from six yards out when he should have hit the target.
United went extremely close to taking the lead six minutes before the interval when Jesse Lingard curled a 20-yard effort onto the post.
However, they were awarded a 43rd-minute penalty when Brandon Williams was caught by Nemanja Miletic and Martial sent Partizan goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic the wrong way from the spot.
Immediately after the restart Partizan’s Seydouba Soumah had claims for a penalty waved away when he went down under Phil Jones’ challenge before the same player had a 20-yard shot kept out by Sergio Romero.
The home side had another penalty appeal ignored when Miletic headed the ball onto Williams’ arm while Umar Sadiq dragged a 25-yard shot wide.
United were hanging on to their slender advantage in the closing stages and Romero palmed Asano’s late header away for a corner but Solskjaer’s team did just enough to claim three hard-earned points.
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