Sevilla 0-0 MU: De Gea helps Red Devils gain advantage

In the trip to Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, coach Jose Mourinho surprisingly left midfielder Paul Pogba on the bench. Instead, he used young talent Scott McTominay like in the win over Huddersfield in the FA Cup last weekend. He combined with Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic in MU's 3-man midfield formation in the match against Sevilla.

Notably, center-back Eric Bailly has recovered from injury and was included in the registration list, but MU's center-back duo in this match is Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof.

Sevilla, with home advantage, continuously overwhelmed MU right from the opening whistle. And as usual, goalkeeper David De Gea continued to be the mainstay for his teammates when he successfully blocked Luis Muriel's dangerous shot in the 4th minute.

In the 17th minute, MU was at a disadvantage when midfielder Herrera was injured and coach Mourinho was forced to put Pogba on the field. However, the presence of the French star helped the away team's attack play much brighter.

In the 24th minute, MU had the first chance of the match when Alexis Sanchez made a precise long pass into the 16m50 area for Lukaku to comfortably finish but the ball was inaccurate. Immediately, Sevilla responded with a shot from Joaquin Correa on the left wing but could not beat De Gea.

Before the first half ended, goalkeeper De Gea made two more excellent saves, denying N'Zonzi's high header and then Luis Muriel's close-range header.

In the second half, the game was quite balanced but dangerous opportunities still belonged to Sevilla. And in a day of excellent performance, De Gea helped the representative from the Premier League keep a clean sheet.

In the 75th minute, coach Mourinho was forced to bring in young talent Marcus Rashford to replace rookie striker Alexis Sanchez after he played quite disappointingly in this match. Rashford's presence brought new life to MU's left flank. Thanks to that, the visitors' attacks were much faster and more unpredictable.

At the end of the match, Lukaku unexpectedly scored against Sevilla but the referee did not recognize the goal because the Belgian star let the ball touch his hand. And 0-0 was the final result of this match. The rematch between MU and Sevilla will take place at Old Trafford on March 14.

In the remaining match of the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 last night, Shakhtar Donetsk defeated AS Roma 2-1 at home thanks to goals from the South American duo Facundo Ferreyra and Fred. The only goal of the Italian representative, which was also the opening goal, was scored by young striker Cengiz Under.