United’s first Champions League match since the December 2023 group-stage exit ended 4-0 against Sabah FK, and the scoreline was somehow the least interesting part of the night. Sabah, a club founded in 2017, fielded eleven different nationalities in their starting eleven on their league-phase debut. They were always going to lose at Old Trafford. What Michael Carrick learned about his own squad matters far more, and the short answer is Benjamin Sesko.
Three Years Away, Then Four Goals
The first half hour was rougher than the scoreline suggests. United needed 25 minutes to find any rhythm, the crowd groaned more than once, and Sabah created the best chance of the opening period when Joy-Lance Mickels rose unmarked and headed wide. A Thursday kickoff against modest opposition gave the evening a Europa League texture, which is what three years away from this competition does to a fixture.
Then it tipped. Matheus Cunha opened the scoring on 27 minutes from Patrick Dorgu’s cross, Bruno Fernandes made it two before the break from Youri Tielemans’ cut-back, and Sesko added the third on the stroke of half-time from Bryan Mbeumo’s assist. Lisandro Martínez headed the fourth on 68 minutes after a Zirkzee back-heel turned the penalty box into a small riot. Four goals, no injuries, and a second half managed like a training session.
Credit Sabah for the occasion, and for clipping the crossbar late with a header that would have changed nothing but the mood. That’s the extent of the threat United faced. The significance sits elsewhere. This is a club that has spent like Elon Musk acquires companies over the past decade, and all of it bought three years of Thursday-night football instead. A Champions League win at Old Trafford, however routine, was the entire point of the rebuild.
What the Stands and the Forums Were Actually Saying
We spent half-time in the r/reddevils match thread rather than the pie queue, and the mood there was more revealing than any tactical breakdown. Nobody was celebrating a 3-0 lead. They were demanding substitutions, specifically Mainoo, Bruno, Mbeumo and Tielemans, because the derby was three days away and the pre-match thread had already settled on the only acceptable outcome, three points and no injuries.
The Sesko conversation ran hotter than everything else. “Sesko goals just hit different” and “you can’t replace a natural striker” were the lines recurring through the replies, and the excitement is justified. The Slovenian missed all of pre-season, made his first start of the campaign on Thursday and scored anyway. That’s back-to-back goals now, delivered as the focal point of an attack that also gave us Dorgu’s confident night at left-back in Shaw’s absence.
Tielemans deserves his own paragraph. The awareness to hold the cut-back until Fernandes arrived is exactly the kind of detail that vanishes inside a 4-0, and it suggests the cohesion questions hanging over this squad are being answered on the pitch rather than in press conferences. Add Mbeumo’s assist and Zirkzee’s chaos-agent cameo, and the depth concerns from August look overstated.
The Caveats Before Sunday
Perspective still applies. United’s domestic start has produced fewer points than the performances deserved, and the Premier League has already shown this season it owes nobody anything, as Arsenal’s 2-1 comeback against Chelsea proved. Sabah are not a benchmark for anything beyond organisation, and Mickels’ early header plus that late effort off the crossbar showed a defence that can still be opened. Stronger opponents in this league phase will punish those moments.
There’s also an ugly postscript. Darren Fletcher, now coaching the U18s, confronted an abusive fan in the Old Trafford car park after full-time over players not stopping for autographs, telling him “you can’t speak like that” and “you’re the reason people don’t sign”. Nearby supporters cheered and chanted his name. He was completely right, and the fact it happened on a feel-good night says plenty about the entitlement that never quite leaves this club.
United’s own @ManUtd account put it plainly afterwards, Michael liked what he saw. So did we, with reservations. The derby on September 13 is the actual examination, and City will not care one bit that United kept a clean sheet on Thursday.
Thursday was never meant to define anything, and it didn’t. It was a reset, a first start converted into a statement, and a squad getting healthy at the right moment. The scoreline will be forgotten by Christmas. Whether Sesko keeps forcing his way into the biggest games is the question that will actually shape Carrick’s season, and after one start, the answer is trending the right way.
