Henrikh Mkhitaryan criticises "awful" Rostov pitch

Manchester United winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan has admitted that the state of Rostov's pitch affected the quality of his side's Europa League last-16 first leg this evening.

Mkhitaryan opened the scoring with an away goal at the Olymp-2, but any attempts from Jose Mourinho's side to take greater control of the tie were hampered by a dreadful playing surface.

The Armenian admitted that the match will not go down as a classic, but is confident that his side can complete the job when they welcome Rostov to Old Trafford next week.

"I think [the away goal will be important]. We've tried to win today. Maybe we weren't very focused at the beginning of the second half but I think we've played as good as we could on this pitch," he told BT Sport.

"I don't want to even speak about the pitch because for both sides it was awful. It was not a very interesting game but we've tried to do everything.

"It does not matter if you are leading 1-0, you have to be ready for everything. We conceded the goal and there was a mistake but we have a second game to come."

United are now unbeaten in nine matches across all competitions.