Astana vs Manchester United 28/11/19

28 November 2019

Manchester United travel to the Astana Arena to take on Astana in the penultimate round of the UEFA Europa League (EL) group fixtures.

The hosts are nailed to the bottom of Group L as the only side in this section that is yet to pick up a single point (L4). What’s more, the two of Astana’s previous EL defeats have seen them draw a blank and go down via a margin of at least five goals. In fact, the Blue and Yellows have netted just one goal in the EL so far, conceding 14. Having already lost any chance of securing promotion to the knockout stage, Roman Hryhorchuk’s side will at least try to snap a three-game losing home streak in the EL group phase and settle the score with United following a narrow 1-0 defeat in England. Before that frustrating run, Astana have lost just one of eight such fixtures (W4, D3, L1).

Meanwhile, the visitors have already secured a place in the knockout stage as the only team in Group L to win three of four of their opening matches in the competition (W3, D1). Encouragingly for the traveling side, all of their group fixtures have been accompanied by a clean sheet, although only one has seen them score over 1.5 match goals. In fact, the Red Devils are yet to score from open play away from home, with their only EL away goals so far coming from a spot-kick against Partizan Belgrade. Still, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have racked up a 15-game unbeaten run in the competition (W11, D4), avoiding defeat in the last seven EL trips (W4, D3).