Hold on to your hats: Manchester United are victorious in Europe after three consecutive draws in the Europa League and another three without winning in last season’s Champions League.

So a 380-day drought ends that stretches to a 1-0 win over FC Copenhagen at Old Trafford on October 24, 2023 thanks to Amad Diallo, whose explosive wing play was capped by his double. The first was a clever header in the 51st minute. The second proved to be a show of aggressiveness as he robbed Abdul Baba down the right, shrugged off the defender’s abuse and then deflected a shot into the left corner.

But before that, United lacked the ability to kill Paok well before the end and put themselves in cruise control. Rúben Amorim should know this anyway, but United’s new manager will, as he watches, understand the scale of the challenge of transforming the group he takes over on Monday.

United’s results in the continental competition this season were 1-1 against Twente, 3-3 at Porto and 1-1 at Fenerbahce. Hardly a shout of honor and when Ruud van Nistelrooy dropped – or rotated – Lisandro Martínez and Matthijs de Ligt for Jonny Evans and Victor Lindelöf in central defense, and Diallo for Marcus Rashford in attack, you wondered if three points would finally be achieved are scored.

The first half suggested not. Razvan Lucescu deployed his Greek champions in a 4-2-3-1 that copied Van Nistelrooy’s shape and Mady Camara, the visiting number 10, exposed a familiar fault line when he encountered a gap in midfield, passed and overtook later in the race. move and then shoot. Camara was Paok’s Bruno Fernandes: a playmaker adept at raising money and leading his team.

The United captain did this when he emerged from the left corner of Paok’s area and slid the ball to Diallo, whose cross was cleared. Then came a series of buccaneers reminiscent of a Sir Alex Ferguson vintage.

Diallo neighed through the infield and pushed Nassour Mazraoui, who switched the ball back to the right, into space. This invited Casemiro to run on and fire an immediate delivery to the far post, where a leering Alejandro Garnacho headed against Jonny’s arm, but a corner rather than a penalty was Radu Petrescu’s decision. The referee – and VAR – made the same decision when Diallo later went down during a Baba challenge.

Diallo was United’s bright light. His next act was to drop the ball on Rasmus Højlund’s head, but the striker’s header was tasteless. A possession percentage of 65.2% illuminated the home side’s dominance. As usual the problem was the last third execution. Earlier, Garnacho had given a simple pass to an overlapping colleague in the Paok area. Now he did the same, again after a burst through an inside left channel, this time it was Diogo Dalot who missed.

Paok lay in wait, waiting for any sloppiness from United. Like when lightweight Manuel Ugarte was bullied on halfway, leading to Andrija Zivkovic hammering a 20-yard effort into André Onana’s clutches.

Here was a hint that United might suffer if their profligacy was not cured. Diallo was inches away from doing so when he threw himself at Garnacho’s cross. But he, and not the ball, ended up in the goal and Baba cleared the ball.

As they headed to the break – almost behind due to a Camara missile that burned Onana’s fingertips as they veered forward – the account of United’s first 45 minutes was toothless. Impotence is also the story of their campaign so far. Van Nistelrooy, a ruthless killer when a United striker, had to deal with this as his troops left for the refreshment break.

More of the same followed. Garnacho managed to locate Dalot on the overlap this time, but the latter failed to find Fernandes with a regulation pass as he arrived in Paok’s area. So Fernandes showed the defender how it’s done as United finally discovered ruthlessness. Down the left, Garnacho looked up and tapped to his captain, who tapped in an accurate ball, causing the excellent Diallo to leap and head a header back across goal, wrong-footing Dominik Kotarski, the visiting goalkeeper.

Fernandes was United’s hub. He then created again for Diallo with a curved through ball: the attacker ran in but saw his attempt saved. United again served up an array of chances, but too many were turned away. Dalot shot over, Fernandes did the same, and in between Garnacho went into the penalty area to the attention of Tomasz Kedziora and Jonny, and again Petrescru’s judgment on the lack of a penalty was questionable.

Tarik Tissoudali worried United in front of goal, but his nerves failed him and he fired a shot straight into Onana’s gloves. Shortly after Diallo’s second he hurt his leg and was replaced despite appearing fine. United will hope so ahead of Sunday’s visit to Leicester.