Roma’s Lorenzo Pellegrini was hit by coins as the Italian club kept their Europa League last 32 hopes alive with a 3-0 victory at Istanbul Basaksehir on Thursday as Kazakh champions Astana fought back to surprise a youthful Manchester United 2-1.
Attacking midfielder Pellegrini had his head bandaged after he was struck by multiple coins with an hour of the game played after Jordan Veretout, Justin Kluivert and Edin Dzeko had claimed the advantage for the Serie A outfit in Turkey.
The visitors remain in contention for a knock-out spot and sit behind leaders Borussia Moenchengladbach, who beat Austrians Wolfsberg 1-0, on goal difference with the Turkish side a point behind on seven. Earlier, captain Jesse Lingard opened the scoring for United, who had already reached the last 32, before Dmitri Shomko equalised for the home side. Di’Shon Bernard, 19, then put through his own goal to hand Astana victory over a United side whose average age was just 22. United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made 11 changes from Sunday’s draw with Sheffield United by handing senior debuts to teenagers Ethan Laird, Dylan Levitt and Bernard as well as naming cancer survivor Max Taylor on the bench. Solskjaer said some of the youngsters on show put their hands up to feature against Alkmaar in the final round of group matches on December 12.
“At times we were excellent but there were spells when we let them push us back. That cost us in the end,” he
said.
“These boys have learnt a lot and have given me food for thought. I’m very pleased with many of them.” Shomko,
meanwhile, told Uefa.com the result will live in his memory.”I will be telling my grandchildren, ‘you know guys
a while ago I scored against Manchester United’. It does not matter who scored, really. The most important thing is that we won,” he said.