Henrikh Mkhitaryan was happy to get through tonight's Europa League clash with Rostov unscathed.

The Armenian returned to the Manchester United line-up having missed the last two matches after injuring his hamstring not long after scoring against St Etienne a fortnight ago.

Mkhitaryan scored the opening goal at the Stadion Olimp-2 in Russia with a fairly simple goal for a player of his quality, slotting home a clever cut-back from Zlatan Ibrahimovic on 35 minutes, before United conceded to Alexander Bukharov in the second half.

It was a tough night for both sides on a below par playing surface and Mkhitaryan felt it was a fair result as the Red Devils return to England with a vital away goal in their grasp.

"I think so, we tried to win today, maybe we weren't very focused in the second half but we played as good as we could on this pitch," he said on BT Sport when asked if it was a positive result.

"I don't want to speak about the pitch but for both sides it was an awful thing. It was not an interesting game.

"But that's football, you have to deal with it. It doesn't matter if you score because you can then concede, you have to be ready for everything.

"There his still a second game to play which will be more important than this one.

"The first half was more quiet, there was nothing special beside the goal. I'm happy to score and we were happy to lead but unfortunately we conceded and everything change."

Regarding this own fitness, Mkhitaryan added: "Hopefully I've got no injuries, we will keep fighting and getting ready for the next game."

United will host Rostov at Old Trafford next Thursday night as they strive to advance to the quarter-finals by avoiding defeat or a score draw.