A first-half effort from Henrikh Mkhitaryan has helped earned Manchester United a 1-1 draw with Rostov in the first leg of their last-16 tie in the Europa League.

The Armenian international netted 10 minutes before the break, but Rostov earned a share of the spoils through Aleksandr Bucharov as the Russian side gave themselves something to work with when they travel to England next week.\

With less than two minutes on the clock, United should have taken the lead through Paul Pogba, but he could only scuff his shot from 12 yards after being teed up by Mkhitaryan.

That proved to be the only opportunity of the opening stages as both teams struggled to put any quality work together on the much-criticised pitch in Russia, but Rostov were not helping proceedings by attempting to make it a scrappy game.

However, with 10 minutes remaining of the first half, United went ahead through Mkhitaryan, who was well placed from six yards out to convert the ball into the net after a neat cutback from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Rostov began to show more ambition before the break but they were unable to trouble Sergio Romero, who had little to do apart from a number of routine catches.

After the restart, Ibrahimovic and Ashley Young both sent the ball off target from distance when they should have tested the goalkeeper, and it did not take long for Rostov to capitalise.

A floated pass over the top of the defence from Timofei Kalachev found the run of Bucharov and in the same movement, he was able to chest the ball down and volley it into the net from 12 yards.

Soon after the hour mark, Aleksandr Yerokhin fired well wide after breaking into the penalty area before a minute later, Marouane Fellaini headed straight at Nikita Medvedev after meeting a corner.

During the final quarter of the match, chances were few and far between with neither side being able to put together a move capable of troubling either of the defences.

Alexandru Gatcan had a volley from distance comfortably saved by Romero, but that was as good as it got for the home side as United did enough to take a draw back to Old Trafford.