For the multitude of emerging academy graduates in Manchester United’s squad on Wednesday night, there could be no greater source of inspiration than the sight of a player who has blazed a trail they hope to follow offering a glorious showcase of his rarefied gifts. In a game low on quality, Mason Greenwood stood out a mile.

Anthony Elanga and Amad Diallo have bright futures ahead of them, Charlie Savage, son of Robbie, and Zidane Iqbal will have savoured their first senior appearances and Teden Mengi and Shola Shoretire their time on the pitch, but they will also have recognised, watching Greenwood, how high the bar is set.

This was Greenwood’s first start for over a month since the humiliating 2-0 defeat by Manchester City on Nov 6 and the 20-year-old England forward, a virtual ever-present in the early stages of the season under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, looked like some time out of the spotlight, in part due to contracting coronavirus, has done him good.

Ralf Rangnick, who has a track record of getting the best out of hungry, young talent, is excited to be working with Greenwood and it is easy to see why. The comparisons with Robin van Persie are nothing new but watching Greenwood slipping effortlessly from a vertical position into an horizontal one as he cracked home Luke Shaw’s ninth-minute cross with the sweetest of left-foot volleys was to be catapulted back to those days when the Dutchman brought crowds to their feet in similar fashion.

The sense of anticipation as he hung back and found that little pocket of space in the penalty area demonstrated his instinct and positional nous, the execution to meet Shaw’s excellent cross was flawless, the precision of the finish immaculate. There was a sliver of space to Fabian Lustenberger’s right and Guillaume Favre’s near post and Greenwood found it. Rangnick called it “beautiful” and a “perfect left-foot shot”. Sure, this may have been a dead rubber, with United’s progress to the Champions League knockout stages as group winners already assured, but it was a goal worthy of lighting up any match.

No player in United history has scored more European goals before the age of 21 than Greenwood’s eight. In truth, Rangnick, a staunch advocate of a pressing game, may have taken as much delight from later seeing Greenwood haranguing Mohamed Ali Camara high up the left touchline before nicking the ball off the Young Boys defender, muscling his way to the by-line and having the presence of mind to pull the ball back for Juan Mata. Mata had to score but his shot was deflected over. “That was brilliant,” Rangnick said. “He’s a massive talent. My job is to develop him, make an athlete out of him. We need to develop him physically and mentally to become the strongest version of himself.”

That would have put United 2-0 in front after 34 minutes. Instead, a defensive calamity gifted Young Boys’ Fabian Rieder a soft equaliser and United became increasingly careless in possession during a sluggish second period mainly notable for the run-outs given to an array of youngsters.

United will face one of Paris St-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon or RB Salzburg in the round of 16.

For Rangnick, this was as much an opportunity to rest his stars and get some minutes into the legs of United’s fringe players such as Donny van de Beek, Jesse Lingard and Mata as the chance to give some of the club’s young talents a taste of the European occasion.
United’s interim manager made 11 changes to the team that beat Crystal Palace in his first game in charge on Sunday but saw as much he did not like here as he liked. “I wouldn’t say I was happy but it was OK,” was Rangnick’s assessment afterwards. United had largely controlled the first half and should have been two or three goals to the good until they shot themselves in the foot in familiar fashion a few minutes before the interval, a goal that irritated Rangnick immensely.

Nemanja Matic, deputising at centre-half, played a short pass from his own penalty area into the feet of Van de Beek. The Dutchman took a huge risk by attempting a quick pass to Aaron Wan-Bissaka having not first adequately assessed the danger or the fact that United’s right-back was looking the other way and had no interest in receiving the ball in such a position. Rieder took full advantage of such carelessness by curling a lovely finish into the top corner.

“What was really annoying was the way we gave the goal away,” he said. “We could have cleared the ball easily. I told them that before the game but still they played that five metre pass and they were just waiting for the ball.”

The night, though, will be remembered for Greenwood’s extraordinary goal.