Breaking: Manchester United’s Europa League Clash Could Be Called Off 1

Manchester United arrived in Odessa, Ukraine on Wednesday in preparation for their crucial Thursday night Europa League fixture against Zorya Luhansk.

Jose Mourinho’s men need at least a point to secure progression from Group A and, given that Zorya are actually playing some 600 miles from their home ground, the Red Devils will be confident of registering their first away win of this season’s competition.

That is if the game actually goes ahead, of course.

The issue that could cause problems? The potentially unplayable pitch inside Zorya’s adopted home ground, the Chornomorets Stadium.

Given the freezing temperatures in that part of Ukraine right now, there are serious question marks about whether the pitch will have thawed enough before Thursday night’s kick off.

The United players looked less than impressed when they took to the field for a training session on Wednesday and Mourinho alluded to the frozen nature of the pitch when speaking to the media on Wednesday.


He even suggested that maybe UEFA shouldn’t have scheduled the fixture for early December.

Staff have been trying their best to find a solution by heating certain areas of the pitch and that will likely continue overnight.

However, as reported by ESPN’s Mark Ogdan, there is going to be an official pitch inspection at 10 a.m. (8 a.m. UK time) on Thursday.


Although UEFA regularly check the state of pitches before fixtures, the current situation in Odessa means that, if things haven’t improved by then, there is a genuine chance the game could be postponed.


It remains to be seen what Plan B would be if the worst case scenario did play out and the game wasn’t able to go ahead as planned.

With Mourinho already having complained of a fixture backlog, the last thing he would want would be for the Europa League fixture to be pushed back say 24 hours. Especially given their crucial Premier League fixture against Tottenham on Sunday.

UEFA, too, would surely do all they could to get the game played on Thursday night. Any delay could give an advantage to Mourinho’s men as they would know what was required to progress with the other match in the group having been completed.

The safety of all 22 players is, though, the most important thing at the end of the day.