Shakhtar advance at United's expense after draw

FC Shakhtar Donetsk held off a late surge from Manchester United FC in Leigh to seal progress to the UEFA Youth League round of 16 as Group A runners-up.

Needing to win, the English team made much of their running without really threatening to score and were pushing for a goal when Olexandr Zinchenko broke the deadlock with 13 minutes remaining. Substitute Ashley Fletcher levelled in the closing stages but a winner proved elusive as Shakhtar secured second spot behind Real Sociedad de Fútbol.

The first half was a mostly cagey affair but goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini had to be more alert than his defence to deny Artur Miranyan early on. The hosts, responding to a crowd of 1,903, intermittently threatened through Andreas Pereira and James Wilson but their challenge was all but extinguished when Zinchenko converted substitute Oleksandr Zubkov's cross. Wilson set up Fletcher to reduce the arrears but Shakhtar held on.

"We created three or four opportunities in the first half that on another night we could have gone one or two up," said United assistant Paul Scholes. "In the second half we had to go for it a bit more; unfortunately it wasn't in the plan that they went up the other end and scored. [Overall] it has been a great experience for the players and hopefully we can be in it next year."