Cristiano Ronaldo Fires Blank In His First Ever Europa League Game As Man United Lose At Home

No player in history has made more UEFA Champions League appearances than Cristiano Ronaldo but the Manchester United forward started from scratch in the Europa League on Thursday.

Ronaldo had played in two games for Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Cup in 2002 but he had never featured in the competition since it was rebranded as the UEFA Europa League in 2009.

His first UEL outing did not go to plan.

Ronaldo played the full 90 minutes at Old Trafford but was unable to prevent United from falling to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Spanish side Real Sociedad.

Cristiano Ronaldo pictured looking frustrated during Manchester United's 1-0 loss to Real Sociedad

IMAGO/NurPhoto/Jose Breton

The 37-year-old did find the net following a Diogo Dalot cross on 35 minutes but his headed effort was ruled out for offside.

Other than that invalid attempt, Ronaldo produced four shots against Sociedad but failed to hit the target with any of them.

United were eventually beaten by a penalty kick, awarded 12 minutes into the second half for a handball by defender Lisandro Martinez.

Brais Mendez converted the spot-kick to score Sociedad's first ever goal against United - in their fifth meeting.

Elsewhere in Group E on opening night, FC Sheriff won 3-0 away to Omonia Nicosia.