Finally the first win for Manchester United in this season's Europa League. The team is starting to look noticeably better under the interim management of van Nistelrooy. Then again, today's opponent wasn't particularly challenging. PAOK might be doing OK in the Greek Super League, but, in the Europa League, so far they've only got 1 point in 4 matches (including today's one).
Man United performed well today, they deserved to get their first win in UEL. It is quite obvious that Man United performed better under Nistelrooy's management. Nistelrooy understands how to improve the mentality of the players, he is also good in strategy, and he knows the right way to determine the main lineup. I can see clearly that Man United players to be more confident, they enjoyed the match, and be more offensive. As the results, they always know how to score goals and they can minimize the chance of conceded goals. In my opinion, it is because Van Nistelrooy put the right players in the midfield line. The combination of Casemiro-Ugarte looks impressive. Against PAOK, Van Nistelrooy choose good lineup, that's why Man United can play quite solidly. They got 0 conceded goals and they scored 2 goals.
I can't say I'm not surprised by Galatasaray's 3-2 win over Tottenham. I considered Tottenham to be one of the strongest teams in the batch, and Galatasaray previously struggled against weaker teams. But, partially due to Tottenham playing with 10 men from the 60th minute, they did their job pretty well and jumped to third place in the table.
Yeah, the red card changed everything. But we must be aware that the red card got in second half of the match. Galatasaray scored 3 goals in the first half of the match. I think the red card couldn't be the reason that Tottenham lost in the match.