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Tahith Chong Misses Open Net Before Astana Equalise Vs Manchester United

Tahith Chong Misses Open Net Before Astana Equalise Vs Manchester United

The chance looked easier to score than miss for the United youngster and just 38 seconds later the home side were level.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Manchester United youngster Tahith Chong missed an open goal chance in the Europa League, with Astana FC equalising just 38 seconds after the simple miss.

With qualification out of the group already confirmed with two games left Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took an extremely young squad to Kazakhstan.

Jesse Lingard, one of the few players older than 20, put United ahead in the first half and Chong, one of the more experienced players despite only being 19, missed an open goal sitter on 54 minutes, only for Astana to go up the other end and make it 1-1 less than a minute later.

Solskjaer and United were able to afford taking such a young squad across Europe because they've already guaranteed qualification out of the group with two games to go.

Finishing top will be beneficial in the tournament going forward but the Red Devils had two cracks at finishing first in the group ahead of the match in Astana.

But that wouldn't have been any comfort to the team, or the manager, as their eastern European hosts soon made it 2-1 through DiShon Bernard own goal.

Lee Grant was making his first start for United and there were three debutants in United's starting line up, which had an average age of just 20.2 for the outfield players.

Only Shaw, Lingard, Chong, Tuanzebe and Mason Greenwood have had much recent exposure to the first team, with James Garner making just his fourth appearance.

The Premier League side have a big 10 days ahead of them starting with a league game against Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.

After that they face former manager Jose Mourinho next Wednesday and finish the run with the first Manchester derby of the season on Saturday December 7th.

There's then a five day gap before Solskjaer's side face AZ Alkmaar in the final Europa League group game with the winner finishing top of the table.

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Topics: Tahith Chong, Football News, Europa League, Manchester United