Manchester United made hard work of their first UEFA encounter against opposition from Kazakhstan needing a goal from teenager Mason Greenwood to save their blushes.
Utd last won this competition in 2017 and opened their campaign with a home fixture against Astana, champions of Kazakhstan for the past five seasons and who negotiated four summer qualifying ties to reach the group stage.
The end of a scoreless first half was greeted with muted silence by the Utd supporters as despite dominating for long periods and creating chances they lacked quality when it mattered which might be expected from an inexperienced side selected by boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The home side are unbeaten in nine UEFA Europa League home games and have a perfect record in the group stage and should have at least scored twice before the break with all their chances falling in the first 20 minutes.
But once this period had elapsed Utd laboured to find a way through the defence of Astana. It might have been different had Fred not hit the woodwork in the 2nd minute. Marcus Rashford twice had efforts well saved from close range and Greenwood curled one narrowly wide.
Yet sloppy play at the back almost gifted goals to the visitors against the run of play. Twice Phil Jones was caught out and whilst the offside flag saved his blushes once Roman Murtzazayev should have done better when racing clear only to hit a weak shot.
Another frantic start as the second half began saw Marcos Rojo's hard low cross evade the onrushing Utd forwards and Greenwood saw his deflected shot trickle narrowly wide. Fred curled a free kick well but Nenad Eric save comfortably.
But as before Utd were nearly caught out on the break but Dorian Rotariu poked wide at the far post as the Kazakhstan outfit began to gain confidence.
But just as the crowd were getting restless 17 year old Greenwood beat his marker before drilling home the opener on 73 minutes. The lead should have been doubled but substitute Jesse Lingard crashed a shot against the cross bar.
Astana have now only one European away win in their last eleven matches and whilst they had a late flurry it was the hosts who begin their Europa League group stage with a win.
Full Time
Man Utd: 1 (Greenwood 73)
FC Astana: 0
Att: 50,783
