United’s following two Europa League games will be against Omonia. The majority of travelling fans will leave the day before the game, and most will go via a Western European hub to change planes since there isn’t a surfeit of direct flights to Moldova. Sportsbreak, which usually provides organised travel packages, couldn’t source a plane or staff it. Match tickets cost £31 ($36) and there’s no organised travel from operators or the club. Six hundred United fans will head east, the majority from the UK. If Sheriff beat United (and they defeated eventual winners Real Madrid away last season), they’ll have a six-point gap over United after two games. These are big games, too, since Sheriff won their opening match against Omonia 3-0. United played in Kazakhstan (only 12 per cent of the country is in Europe) in 2019 and the venue in Astana was, by some way, the furthest United have played away in European competition. If Russia’s Luch Vladivostok ever get into Europe, it would be a 13-hour flight to an away game in Western Europe, though there is the enticing seven-day option of the Trans-Siberian railway. Israel is classed as being in Asia for geographic purposes but in Europe for football, plus the teams from the Eurasian countries of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan play in UEFA competitions. The United Kingdom is classed as one sovereign state but comprises four UEFA members: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Europe has 50 sovereign states, but UEFA has 55 national association members. Group E, comprising United, Real Sociedad, Sheriff and Omonia, has a rich geopolitical context, so here goes. We would all prefer Champions League football, but seeing your team in new countries also holds a certain appeal and is about far more than the 90 minutes on the pitch. Stick with us here… if you want those repeat trips to Munich, Madrid and Milan, the Europa League is not where the action is, but it’s great for those fans who like to watch United in as many different countries as possible. Next month, the number of teams United have met from different UEFA nations will rise to 34 when a Cypriot side - Omonia from the divided capital of Nicosia - play United for the first time in the competition, though United have already played a competitive game in Cyprus. Transnistria has its own army, currency and border controls, but it is not recognised by any member of the United Nations. In February, following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, UEFA stopped games being located in Transnistria, a Russian-speaking breakaway state that declared independence from Moldova in 1990. The game is being shifted to the 10,400-capacity Zimbru Stadium on safety grounds. Sheriff normally play games in their home city of Tiraspol, 50 miles away. United know all about Sheriff before their meeting in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital. The circumstances in those days just didn’t allow it.” Scouting didn’t exist and we had never seen any images of United before the first game in Brussels. “We knew very little about our opponents from Manchester. I remember the name of one, (Tommy) Taylor, and remember him lifting his hand up and cheering before even putting the ball into the back of the net. I didn’t recall their names, but nine of them were full internationals and the two strikers impressed me the most. “Bobby Charlton wasn’t even in the starting XI that day, just to give you an idea of how strong United’s team really was. “But Manchester United were on another level. “We were the best team in Belgium, a really great side,” said the man who played for Anderlecht for 15 years.
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