The second half was reminiscent of the United team of last season under Louis van Gaal.
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With teenage striker Marcus Rashford hauled off after failing to make the most of his first start of the season, Mourinho used all three of his substitutes in the 63rd minute as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Memphis Depay and Ashley Young came on. We were always in control.
In a dire first half that ended goalless, Jose Mourinho’s attacking line-up did produce the odd chance but they rarely looked like beating Brad Jones in the home goal.
Nicolai Jorgensen may have been just offside when he was sent clear down the right and he cut back for Vilhena to provide a cool side-footed finish from just inside the penalty area that De Gea could not keep out.
United pushed late on for an equaliser but they found it impossible to break down some brilliant defending from the hosts who were more than deserving of their win as they showed more determination on the night for the win.
Careless with their passing and lacking a cutting edge up front, United – also reluctantly in the Europa League group stages for the first time – were unconvincing for long periods.
“In the Europa League, we are going to be the team everyone wants to beat”.
Remarkably, the only Italian side to win were novices Sassuolo – who have never qualified for the European competitions before – with a 3-0 trouncing of 2012 finalists Bilbao on second half goals from Francesco Acerbi, Gregoire Defrel and Matteo Politano. “We know that everybody wants to fight until their limits against us, which they did”.
After a solid start to the Mourinho era, United is now under pressure for the first time and will seek a swift return to winning ways against Watford in the Premier League on Monday (AEST).
The former Chelsea manager refused to single out players though, saying: “I don’t want to go into that direction or personalise”.
The hosts, on the other hand, had a couple of half-chances and with better shots then they could have been in business as they were getting so much room in midfield as the United players let them have the ball.
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“We left Valencia and Shaw back to be fresh so we go back to a normal team obviously without so many changes”, he said.
