Did Sesko perform in his first start of season? How did Dorgu play at left-back in Man Utd win over Sabah?

Manchester United managed a comfortable 4-0 win over Sabah in their first Champions League game for nearly three years.

After a competitive opening 27 minutes, a misplaced pass in midfield led to a break up the pitch by the hosts. Patrick Dorgu then sent in a low cross from the left, with Matheus Cunha turning the ball past goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov to put United ahead.

Bruno Fernandes doubled their lead in the 42nd minute before Benjamin Sesko added a third just before the interval. Lisandro Martinez added a fourth midway through the second half, capitalising on a terrible defensive mix-up to strike from a yard out.

The Athletic’s Laurie Whitwell analyses the key talking points from the game at Old Trafford.

Sesko made his first start of the season — how did he look?

Sesko lasted 64 minutes in what was his first start since May 3, and picked up where he left off in his goal-scoring cameo off the bench against Everton at the weekend. He scored United’s third goal just before half-time, timing his run onto Bryan Mbeumo’s pass perfectly, rounding goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov, keeping his feet, and sliding a finish into the empty net.

His trademark leap into the air to celebrate was met with a raucous noise from the crowd, inevitably pleased that the form the 23-year-old Slovenian showed at the end of his 2025-26 debut year had not been interrupted by the injury that kept him out during pre-season.

He was out for much longer than expected after being withdrawn at half-time of the visit by Liverpool four months ago, having been pushed into the advertising hoardings by Ibrahima Konate. A shin injury he had been nursing was exacerbated by that collision, and United allowed him to fully recuperate while training hard at Carrington, rather than feature in any of their six summer friendlies.

He was straight into the action as a late substitute on the opening weekend at Hull but had to wait until the fourth game of the season tonight for his first start.

That 88th-minute header at Everton showed one side to his game; his smooth finish here, when one-on-one, displayed another string to his bow.

Sesko now has two goals in 117 minutes of football this campaign, or one every 58.5 minutes, after scoring seven in 595 minutes under interim head coach Michael Carrick last season — a rate of one every 85.

How did Dorgu do at left-back in Shaw’s absence?

Patrick Dorgu had not played a minute for Carrick at left-back in nine previous appearances, instead operating further up that wing in an attacking position, but circumstances brought the 21-year-old into the line-up here in the role that many fans would have liked to see transfer target Lewis Hall, who ended up staying at Newcastle this summer, filling.

Dorgu started at left-back because Luke Shaw was missing, presumably as a precaution ahead of the Manchester derby on Sunday, and gave food for thought regarding the weeks and months ahead. Shaw started all 38 Premier League games last season but is not expected to feature three times a week now that the Champions League and the domestic cups have begun, so the Dane might be required to deputise often.

Sabah, from Azerbaijan, felt like the perfect opponents to begin a European campaign against — a team not expected to make too much of an impression in the Champions League.

From an attacking perspective, Dorgu delivered. He set up Matheus Cunha’s goal with a cross that eluded Sabah right-back Akim Zedadka and found his team-mate for a simple finish. He had advanced to the left-winger position, with Cunha drifting inside, a shifting of roles in-game that worked well.

Dorgu also picked out Sesko with a cross from the same area, albeit this ball was a little behind the striker, who tried to finish with a back flick but saw the shot fly just wide.

But Carrick is cautious over Dorgu’s defensive rigour, and that was shown on a couple of occasions. In one moment, he left Zedadka past him too easily, meaning Martinez had to come across to block. He also failed to stop a cross in the box from Kaheem Parris, which was nodded into the side netting by Joy-Lance Mickels.

Dorgu feels like a left-back for those occasions when United can expect to do more attacking than defending.

Did Old Trafford embrace the return of the Champions League?

Old Trafford hosted Champions League football for the first time in 1,003 days with the visit of Sabah. It was December 2023 when Bayern Munich visited and walked away with a 1-0 win on the competition’s since-ditched group stage that consigned United to exiting Europe entirely for that season before Christmas.

That Champions League campaign, under Erik ten Hag, was a major disappointment, with United finishing bottom of a group containing Bayern, Copenhagen and Galatasaray, with one win, a draw and four defeats. Ten Hag had done well to guide United to a third-place finish in the Premier League the previous season, but their European form was erratic.

United are close to surpassing that previous tally swiftly, and might only need two more wins from their remaining seven games to reach the knockout phase: last season, 10 points from the 24 available made qualification a certainty, while nine and a decent goal difference were enough for some teams.

United’s next two games will be a better test of United’s credentials in this competition, away to Atletico Madrid, who they beat 2-1 in pre-season, and then Italy’s Como (4-1 winner at home to RB Leipzig tonight) in back-to-back midweeks after the September/October international break.

But they did what was expected against Sabah, easing to a win that was in the bag well before the end, enabling Carrick to make several substitutions, including giving game time to teenage academy graduates Shea Lacey and Harry Amass.

The football for United’s second and third goals was slick and fluid, with five or more players involved in each move, and they were even able to keep a clean sheet for the first time this season — although they were fortunate that Orphe Mbina sent a header just over the crossbar in added time.

Regardless, a crowd of 73,685 was certainly pleased to have Champions League football back at Old Trafford.

What did Carrick say?

In his post-match press conference, Carrick was asked if this was a perfect start to the competition: “I think so. Kind of what we set out to achieve really, I think (it was) a good performance individually, collectively, pretty much all the way through the game. From start to finish, boys that started, boys that came on the pitch, clean sheet, and some goals and some good exciting football. It was a good night all round.”

He also spoke about not conceding: “I think a clean sheet tonight was important for us. We’ve conceded goals in different ways, and one goes in the top corner, and sometimes you can do things about it, sometimes you can’t, to a point. I think collectively as a team we’ve done a lot of good things, and that’s why we’re kind of excited about what the season brings and not game-to-game, so much of getting too carried away.”

What next for United?

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