Jose Mourinho would have been a happy man leaving Rostov on Thursday night, as much for the fact that no injuries were picked up on an absolute dreadful service as for the away goal that Manchester United now have in their back pocket for the second leg.
The goal came from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and will make things slightly more comfortable for Mourinho's men in the return leg next week, but that very fact is something that does not sit too well with Michael Owen.
Owen has complained about the nature of away goals before, but speaking on BT Sport on Thursday night he elaborated on why he doesn't support the idea, as he called the system 'dated' and 'against the nature of football. The former Man Utd and Liverpool striker used the fact that Barca would have been out having impressively won 5-1 as an example to support his point, no doubt further lowering his estimation with Real Madrid fans, if that were possible after Wednesday night's scenes.
He also produced the kind of quote that will almost certainly end up on a meme in the near future.
It just isn't that simple. Away goals were introduced to combat overly defensive tactics, so while he has a point, it's not likely to change anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Man Utd will take an advantage back to Old Trafford where they will be looking to prevent that from being erased with a clean sheet that would sent them into the quarter-finals, where Mourinho has warned that the tournament will take priority.
