Manchester United get favourable Champions League draw, but which side will show up?

Bayern Munich, Copenhagen and Galatasaray are opponents in Group A, but United's early season form raises questions over whether they can make knockout stage

Bruno Fernandes and his Manchester United teammates were given a favourable draw in the Champions League group stage. AP

Manchester United are grouped with German champions Bayern Munich, Danish champions FC Copenhagen and Turkish champions Galatasaray in Group A of the Champions League following Thursday's draw in Monaco.

United have played all three opponents several times, with the 1999 final being the most famous encounter against Bayern. It's by no means the toughest of the eight groups, but United can expect febrile atmospheres in Munich, Copenhagen and Istanbul, three of the loudest venues in European football. United have played in all three and not won a single game in any of them, but it’ll at least make a change from Spain where United’s last four European away games took place.

A visit from United will mean all three opponents will be at their best, but it was always so. Veterans of the Alex Ferguson’s all-conquering sides will tell you that Galatasaray in 1993 was the loudest atmosphere they ever experienced as players. Copenhagen and Bayern boast some of the best organised, loud and influential supporters.

It’s difficult to say how good – or bad – this United side are. Are we looking at the team who went toe-to-toe with Spanish champions Barcelona and knocked them out of the Europa League only six months ago, earning lavish praise from Barca coach Xavi for being one of the best sides in the world? Or the side which meekly surrendered a 2-0 lead against mid-table Sevilla to lose 5-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals? The team which looked so comfortable in the League Cup final against Newcastle United in the same week as the Barcelona game, or the one which couldn’t win away against any of the Premier League’s top nine sides last season?

United may have won two from their opening three games in the Premier League, but fans are unconvinced. Wolves were easily the better side in the first game despite losing, Spurs won the second game and Forest were 2-0 up inside three minutes in the third at Old Trafford. United suffered early injuries to key players including Luke Shaw and Raphael Varane, not that the best players from last season have started this one well.

The mood at the club wasn’t made any lighter by the decision to not continue with Mason Greenwood, a divisive, emotive issue. That and the ongoing lack of clarity around a sale of the club or future investment under the Glazer family, for whom there is little love lost from fans. The transfer window closes on Friday with United scrambling to sign loan replacements for the injured and struggling to move on some of their highly renumerated players.

This team did well to reach the Champions League last season under Erik ten Hag and it would be considered a failure if United didn’t finish in the top two of Group A against two teams who’ve already played six matches just to reach this point.

Man United v Nottingham Forest ratings

MANCHESTER UNITED RATINGS: Andre Onana - 6. Conceded two in the first three minutes. Was stuck inside his six yards box for the first. Nowhere for the second. Then barely called up until United had taken the lead, when he cleared a ball (poorly) and made a near post save. Booked. Getty

Aaron Wan-Bissaka - 7. Beaten in the air before the counter-attack which led to the Forest opener. Then turned his head away from the ball as Forest scored the second. Fine tackle after 21 to stop an attack and played well, as he has in two of United’s three games so far. Getty

Lisandro Martinez - 6. Got in the way of Wan Bissaka and the confusion allowed Forest’s second goal. Attacked and crossed, implausibly, to Lindelof on 63 as United pushed for a winner. Not the best start to the season. Reuters

Raphael Varane - 6. United’s best defender until he came off at half time. United’s only goalscorer before this game, he got forward. A worry if he’s injured. Reuters

Diogo Dalot - 6. Out of position at left back in place of the injured Luke Shaw. His foul led to Forest’s second. Good defending at the start of the second as he put his foot in the way to stop the ball reaching the waiting Johnson. Misunderstood a reverse pass from Fernandes from a 70th minute free kick. AP

Casemiro - 7. Gave the ball away too much. Played a ball out from a goal kick in an awful start. Left foot shot on 20, missed a 26th minute header which he saw late. Got the equaliser on 51, controlling a Bruno header from close range to huge relief. Fine ball towards Fernandes. Saw more of the ball than any player. Getty

Christian Eriksen - 7. With Mason Mount injured, he made his first start of the season and he finished brilliantly with the outside of his foot from a Rashford cross for a much-needed United goal on 17. Defended well centrally several times as he won the ball back. AFP

Bruno Fernandes - 8. A shot from distance tested Turner before United’s opener. Battled, by trying to stretch Forest, to get his side back into the game, notably by starting and assisting the move which led to United’s equaliser. Pulled back into a red card challenge. Scored the penalty, low, hard and accurate, which edged United ahead on 76. Six shots – more than the entire Forest team. Booked for an altercation on 96. EPA

Antony - 7. Shot and won a corner inside a minute. A minute later, United were behind. Lively on the right but poor crosses in the first half. Fouled in a yellow card challenge at the end of the first half and again after 61, by which time he’d whipped a shot on target after 53. Four key passes. Positive. EPA

Marcus Rashford - 7. Much better on the left, though he was outmuscled by Awoniyi who he then tried to chase down without success to stop Forest’s opener. Defended well. Beat the full-back to set up United’s opener. More of a threat on the left but was central when he lofted a ball to Fernandes to set up the equaliser. Won a 74th minute penalty after light contact. Later booked for kicking a ball away. Getty

Anthony Martial - 5. His 300th start. Complained Wan Bissaka didn’t cross to him, but he’d gone too early and would’ve been offside. Nowhere near enough. AP

SUBS: Victor Lindelof (Varane, HT) - 6. Rose high to clear one of Forest’s two corners. Getty

Jadon Sancho (Martial, 60) - 6. Neat but peripheral. Getty

Scott McTominay (Antony, 84) - N.A. Fouled. Booked for high foot in the 101st minute, then made a key header a minute later as United defended their lead. Getty

NOTTINGHAM FOREST RATINGS: Matt Turner - 6. Forced into a good save by Bruno Fernandes early in the game. Ended the match with nine stops in total, but couldn’t have done anything to stop the goals. Getty

Joe Worrall - 3. Dealt well with the threat of Antony whenever Aina stepped out of defence to help out the attack. Undid his good work in the first half by bringing down Fernandes and earning a straight red card in the 67th minute. AFP

Scott McKenna - 4. A dreadful performance. He should have been much tighter to Erikson to stop him from pulling one back for the home side. He breathed a huge sigh of relief when Casemiro failed to direct his header on goal after he was caught ball-watching in the 26th minute. AP

Willy Boly - 7. Got the travelling Forest fans into dreamland with a glancing header to put the away side two goals up with just four minutes played. Made an important last-ditch challenge to stop Martial in the 29th minute. Forced Onana into a good save late on. EPA

Serge Aurier - 4. It was always going to be a challenging game against the tricky Rashford, and the Ivorian struggled. He was beaten far too easily by Rashford in the build-up to Eriksen’s goal. AP

Ola Aina - 6. Another assured display from Aina as a left-wing-back. Excellent defensive awareness to stop Antony from running through on goal in the 10th minute. AFP

Ryan Yates - 6. Hardworking performance from Yates next to Danilo at the base of Forest’s midfield. Stepped out wide often to help the struggling Aurier deal with the threat of Rashford. Reuters

Danilo - 4. Did a good job of protecting the backline in the first half but seemed to tire in the second half. Put in a foot and caught Rashford in the penalty area to give Bruno Fernandes a chance to put the home side 3-2 up. Reuters

Morgan Gibbs-White - 8. Played Awoniyi through on goal with an intelligent header from his own half. Grabbed his second assist of the day less than two minutes later with a well-taken set piece that was met by a Boly header. Getty

Brennan Johnson - 5. Caused problems for Dalot early in the game, but he fazed out quickly. Switched off at the back, allowing Bruno to ghost in behind and set up Casemiro for the home side’s equaliser. Reuters

Taiwo Awoniyi - 8. Netted in his seventh consecutive game by opening the scoring in the second minute. Efficient in holding up the ball and bringing his teammates into play before the home side took control of the game. Getty

SUBS: Moussa Niakhate (McKenna, 57) - 5. Switched off and allowed Antony to whip in a dangerous cross on the hour mark, though he later executed a last-ditch challenge to stop Rashford. AP

Cheikhou Kouyate (Johnson, 70) - 4. Brought on to add fresh energy into the midfield after the away side were reduced to ten men, Kouyate struggled to get involved and failed to provide adequate cover for his defence. Reuters

Anthony Elanga (Danilo, 81) - N/A. Had half a chance in the 89th minute, but he blazed his effort wide. Displayed good pace to get past Casemiro and whip in a dangerous cross late in the game. Chris Wood (Awoniyi, 81) - N/A. Getty

The games against serial Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich are the big ones. The two clubs share a mutual respect, the fans too, but while Bayern with new signing Harry Kane will be expected to reach the quarter-finals, as they have done in each of the three seasons since last winning the Champions League in 2020, what should we envisage from a United side that departed the Champions League so limply against Atletico Madrid in 2022, a group with RB Leipzig, Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir in 2020 or against Barcelona in 2019 or Sevilla in 2018? United haven’t won a big Champions League knock-out game since – somehow – PSG in 2019.

But first, Group A. Though he’s only played 65 minutes, former United player Wilfried Zaha now plays for Galatasaray, who won the Turkish League by eight points over neighbours Fenerbahce last term. As do fellow forwards, Mauro Icardi from Argentina and Belgian veteran Dries Mertins, 36. Hakim Ziyech, a star under Ten Hag at Ajax, joined on loan from Chelsea last week to bolster the Champions League effort.

Galatasaray this week eliminated Molde, the side formerly managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, to reach the group stage. A 3-2 triumph in Norway, with a winner in the 93rd minute, was followed by a 2-1 win in Istanbul, thanks to another 93rd minute goal. Icardi scored in both legs for the side managed by former player Okan Buruk.

Galatasaray's Angelino, right, celebrates with teammate Mauro Icardi after scoring in the 2-1 Champions League play-off second leg against Molde in Istanbul, Turkey, 29 August 2023. EPA

The Turkish giants defeated Lithuanian team Zalgiris 3-2 on aggregate on the second qualifying round and then Slovenian champions Olimpija Ljubljana 4-0 over two legs in the third qualifying round.

United have history with Galatasaray. The famous games of 1993 where Eric Cantona clashed with police amid ‘Welcome to Hell’ signs on the way to strong favourites United being knocked out. The pair met a year later with a 0-0 draw in Turkey and a 4-0 win for United masking an awful group performance. They met again in 2012/13, when United won at home and had already qualified by the time of a 1-0 defeat on matchday six.

“Mr Ferguson,” asked a local journalist in English. “You left here in 1993 disappointed. And you leave here now disappointed. Has anything changed in 19 years?”

Had it been a British journalist, Ferguson may have snapped back. Instead, he smiled and said: “Well, we’ve won the competition twice.”

The put down raised some laughs, but Ferguson wasn’t finished.

“We’ve also reached the final twice. And we’ve qualified for the knock-out stages as group winners tonight.”

Ferguson smiled, stood up and left the room.

Copenhagen, where United’s new striker Rasmus Højlund, 20, started his professional career, are the Danish champions and reached the group stage after eliminating Polish champions Rakow Czestochowa 2-1 over two legs this week. In the previous round, they defeated Sparta Prague on penalties. A 0-0 draw against the Czech champions was followed by a 3-3 draw in Prague, then penalties. In the first round, the side managed by Jacob Neestrup, 35, defeated Icelandic champions Breiðablik 8-3 over two legs. The second leg saw Copenhagen score six times in 23 minutes. Neestrup took charge in September 2022 and helped the side retain the Danish title.

United last played Copenhagen in the quarter-finals of the 2020 Europa League, a match played behind closed doors in Cologne which United won 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Bruno Fernandes in extra time. The pair met in Champions League games in 2006/07, with the Danes 1-0 winners at home and 3-0 losers in Manchester. The best supported team in Denmark, with an average home crowd of 27,385 last season, Copenhagen play in the Parken Stadium, capacity 38,000. It will be full against United – they all will in this group stage – but which United will turn up to take them on?