The harsh truth from Rostov: Forget the pitch, Manchester United are a Europa League team

After the Krug and Caviar of the Champions League, it was back to the plain clothes and porridge of the Europa League.

Manchester United’s magical mystery tour in European football’s lesser competition, that has already encountered Turkey, the Netherlands, Ukraine and France since September, saw them venture 20 miles short of Russia’s Sea of Azov, the shallowest sea in the world brimming with sand, silt and algae.

A bit like the mutant pitch Jose Mourinho’s side were asked to play on against their hardy Russian hosts in the first leg of the wide-ranging Europa League last 16. Rostov have a taste for this level of heavy industry, but for United it still feels like some sort of weird experiment, a bit like Marouane Fellaini's barnet rinse.

There is nothing like a trip to Rostov-on-Don in Russia and the local club’s Olimp-2 Stadion, looking like it had its last lick of paint when it was built in the 1930s, to remind you of your true station in life.

Mourinho departed Russia none the wiser about his most potent side as he attempts to finish strongly in the death throes of the season.

In the end, United, with Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both starting, left the city port in southern Russia with a 1-1 draw. Henrikh Mkhitaryan benefited from Ibrahimovic’s pass after he had been spotted by Fellaini to tap the opening goal into the net on 35 minutes.

Aleksandr Bukharov controlled and converted Timofei Kalachev's delivery to restore parity at 1-1 eight minutes into the second period with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones caught marking space. For such a poor game, the goals were fine interjections.

Fortunately for United, it didn't rain in the Russian outpost otherwise this match would have been like a throwback to English league grounds in the 1970s, the sort of scene that made Ronnie Radford a Hereford folk hero rising out of the FA Cup mud to thump one into Newcastle United’s net almost half a century ago.

To say the pitch affected the flow of the game is a huge understatement. It was the sort of set-up a golfer could practice his bunker shots on such was the amount of sand on it.

If UEFA are serious about giving this much-maligned competition credibility, they should be making it their business to ensure clubs provide proper grass for it.

Would UEFA have deemed it acceptable for such a surface to appear in the Champions League? After the Lord Mayor's Show came this hotchpotch of dreadful bumps and bobbles. Mourinho was content to attain equality on the night.

There would have been more give on a basketball court as a few United players amused themselves beforehand by slamming balls off the deck like it was a slab of concrete.

Amid their obvious struggle in passing, the main problem for United moving forward is that they didn’t exactly look out of place in the grime. Here was a level playing field. They will relish the chance to visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday in the FA Cup quarter-finals after this.

In particular, Pogba looked tinpot in these elements, a million miles away from an £89m world-record signing who struggled to dominate or enlighten the night in keeping with the accepted wisdom on him. He has time on his side but like United, remains unconvincing.

If the visitors didn’t enjoy the match, neither did Rostov. Neither team merited a win before the return leg at Old Trafford on Thursday.

United’s players watched Lionel Messi on Wednesday night before coming across a man dubbed the Iranian Messi.

Sardar Azmoun replaced Bukaharov for the last 16 minutes, but like the rest of the cast toiling to find a level of meaningful quality, could not control the ball under the poverty-stricken conditions.

Mourinho said before his side’s 1800-mile sojourn to Rostov-of-Don accompanied by just under 250 United fans that he could almost smell the Europa League final, an event he won as Porto manager in 2003.

One suspects the Portuguese don of Old Trafford will have to fumigate the legacy of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal that lingers on from recent European travails.

Jones and Smalling are survivors from years gone by, but neither man was able to prevent the goal that poses a question of United before their home leg.

The concession of the goal had nothing to do with the pitch. The ball never touched the ground as Bukharov finished from the Kalachev pass. It is the sort of moment that could easily occur on a bowling green at Old Trafford.

United’s defence remains debatable. If qualifying for the Champions League via finishing in the top four of the Premier League is tough, reaching the blue-chip tournament by winning the Europa League is likely to prove as arduous.

It is a threadbare excuse to claim United were brought down to Rostov's level by the pitch. This is their level.

Rostov, seventh in the Russian league, remain dangerous ahead of the second leg. They enjoyed a 3-2 win over Bayern Munich at their ground in November. They also enjoyed two draws with PSV Eindhoven to qualify for this tournament by finishing third in a Champions League group that contained Bayern and Atletico Madrid, who narrowly defeated them by one goal twice.

Despite Mourinho’s misgivings about the pitch and United not being a Europa League club, they are quite clearly a Europa League team.

After unearthing £145m last summer, United's largesse under the 'Special One' means little. Winning this tournament would be a major achievement for Mourinho's United in their current guise.