Manchester United did it the hard way but Rasmus Hojlund ensured Ruben Amorim earned a first Old Trafford win.
Rasmus Hojlund scored twice to rescue Ruben Amorim’s Old Trafford welcome party as Manchester United came from behind to beat Bodo/Glimt 3-2 in the Europa League.
The Portuguese was taking charge of his first home game after overseeing a 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town, and he would have been fearing the worst when a quickfire double from the visitors cancelled out Alejandro Garnacho’s first-minute opener.
But Norwegian forward Hojlund bagged either side of half-time to earn all three points and leave United a point off the top eight in the league phase.
United were ahead inside 50 seconds when Hojlund caught Nikita Haikan dawdling, allowing Garnacho to tap into an open goal on the follow-up.
Hakon Evjen bent in a beautiful left-footed equaliser and four minutes later Tyrell Malacia – back playing for the first time in 17 months – was outmuscled by Philip Zinckernagel, who then rifled one into the bottom-left corner.
Shortly before the break, Hojlund restored parity on the volley after brilliantly taking down Noussair Mazraoui’s dinked cross and then finished a well-worked move from six yards when meeting Manuel Ugarte’s centre five minutes after the restart.
Garnacho wasted two favourable opportunities when breaking in behind, before bending another effort high and wide after a four-on-two break.
Marcus Rashford also flashed wide as United sought to add breathing space but, in the end, winning by the odd goal in five was enough to get Amorim a first win as boss.
- Data Debrief: Ruben up and running with a touch of coincidence
Amorim can breathe a little sigh of relief with his United victory. This fixture marked only the second time a side had ever scored two goals inside 23 minutes in an away major European game against the Red Devils.
The first occasion was against Sporting Braga back in October 2012 (two goals in 20 minutes) where a certain Amorim was coincidentally playing for the visitors.
It could hardly have been a better start to the game for the new boss with Garnacho scoring after 48 seconds, though.
It saw United score in the opening minute of a major European game for the first time since March 1991, when Brian McClair netted the opener against Montpellier in a UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup tie.
United have now won their last two European matches (2-0 vs PAOK Salonika under Ruud van Nistelrooy and 3-2 on Thursday under Amorim), more than they did in their last 11 under former boss Erik ten Hag (W1 D5 L5).
