Manchester United – Astana

English giants Manchester United start their participation in the Europa League group stage. On Thursday the Red Devils welcome Astana at the legendary Old Trafford. Let us give you our Europa League predictions for this fixture from Group L of the competition.

After just one season in the Champions League, the former kings of Europe return to Europa League. Surely this is not what Manchester United were hoping for, but right now this is the reality for one of the biggest clubs in the world. Since sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, Manchester United still can’t find themselves. These are difficult times for the club from the Theatre of Dreams.

Since the beginning of the campaign, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team is a little bit inconsistent in the Premier League. From five games played in the league so far, United won just two of them. One of these two wins came in the previous round, when the Red Devils beat Leicester City at home with a winning goal from Marcus Rashford.

Usually in the group stage of Europa League Manchester United are doing some rotations in their team. Right now Solskajer has some problems, because some players are injured. But boys like Fred, Tahith Chong and Mason Greenwood could feature against Astana on Thursday.

Astana are Kazakhstan’s strongest team at the moment. During the Europa League playoffs they had a tough test against BATE Borisov, but managed to eliminate the Belarusian team after a big 3-0 win at home.

Astana are entering this fixture at the Old Trafford, enjoying a run of three consecutive wins in Kazakhstan’s Premier League. In their last game they achieved a 2-1 win at home against Shakhter Karagandy.

What we can say in our Europa League predictions? Of course, Manchester United are a huge favourite against Astana, especially at home. Despite of some injury problems which they have, we believe that the Red Devils will start their Europa League campaign with three points.