United subsumes Saint-Etienne to reach Europa League's last 16

Action Images via Reuters / Andrew Boyers Livepic

Ten-man Manchester United completed the formality of its progression into the Europa League’s final 16 with a 1-0 win at Saint-Etienne on Wednesday.

The result meant Jose Mourinho’s side took an aggregate scoreline of 4-0 from the two meetings, but the Portuguese handler will have a couple of selection headaches arising from the test.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who opened the scoring after poking a sublime Juan Mata cross home, was forced to leave the encounter after 25 minutes with an apparent hamstring issue, making him a doubt for Sunday’s League Cup final with Southampton.

Defensive rock Eric Bailly was then given a yellow card for a late tackle on Romain Hamouma after an hour, meaning he’ll miss the first leg of the next round. He then capped off his impending non-involvement with a second yellow in the space of three minutes.

Michael Carrick’s 61st-minute withdrawal for Bastian Schweinsteiger was also apparently enforced, with the holding midfielder appearing to be nursing an injury to the back of his leg, according to Stuart Mathieson of the Manchester Evening News.

United fought to increase the deficit over the Ligue 1 outfit, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba combining for some smooth interplay, but it instead panned out into a rather humdrum affair in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region.

Still, the visitor can take confidence heading into the next stage by ending Saint-Etienne’s ten-match unbeaten sequence at home in European competitions, and for keeping its fourth-straight clean sheet in the tournament.

The unseeded draw for the Round of 16 takes place on Friday, with the matches to be played in principle on March 9 and 16.