Manchester United made a laboured start to their Europa League campaign as they were beaten 1-0 by Feyenoord in Rotterdam.
Tonny
Vilhena scored the decisive goal for the Eredivisie side in the 79th
minute as Nicolai Jorgensen's cut-back cross found the 21-year-old
midfielder free in the box to slot home.
Jose Mourinho made eight
changes to the side that lost against Manchester City in the Premier
League at the weekend, introducing Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial
into the XI and naming Chris Smalling as captain on his first start of
the season.
But the wholesale changes had a detrimental effect and
United struggled for tempo and to create any clear cut chances of note
in a first half that saw them frustrated by Giovanni van Bronckhorst's
organised side in front of a lively but less-than-capacity crowd at De
Kuip.
Martial came closest to breaking the deadlock for United in
the 24th minute when he put a Matteo Darmian cross wide from close range
but they failed to test former Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones during
the opening 45 minutes.
United didn't improve much after the break
and frustrated by the lethargic performance he had seen in the opening
hour Mourinho made three changes in the 63rd minute minute with Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, Memphis Depay and Ashley Young introduced in place of
Rashford, Martial and Juan Mata.
However, the gamble didn't pay
off and with little over 10 minutes remaining Vilhena fired a low effort
past David De Gea in the United goal.
A desperate late onslaught
from United yielded little more than a drilled free kick from
Ibrahimovic that Jones saved comfortably, while De Gea came up for a
93rd-minute corner but Feyenoord held firm to claim a winning start in
Group A.
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