ODESSA, Ukraine -- It has now been more than two and a half years since Zorya Luhansk last played at home, so Manchester United's Europa League visit to Ukraine on Thursday is tinged with as much sadness as anticipation for the club known as "Lenin's team."
Zorya will host United for the first time, a box-office encounter that has ensured a 27,000 sell-out at Odessa's Chornomorets Stadium on the banks of the Black Sea.
But Jose Mourinho's team will be contesting the Group A fixture almost 600 miles from Luhansk because of the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has forced Zorya into a nomadic existence in order to fulfill their domestic and European fixtures.