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So I wanted to figure out who actually played for Man United against PAOK last week for my weekly stats roundup, but dang, finding the official starting lineups got messy fast.
I started like always, just typing “Man United vs PAOK lineups last game” into the search bar. Expected a quick Football site or the club’s own page, easy-peasy. Wrong. Top results were a mess – headlines about formations rumors for the next game, weird prediction sites, and old news articles just mentioning the score. Seriously frustrating. Had to scroll way down.
I almost gave up. Ended up trying different wordings like “starting XI Man U PAOK match,” which helped a tiny bit. Finally spotted a link mentioning “confirmed lineups,” clicked it fast.
Here’s what they supposedly played:
- Man United: Onana in goal. Defense was Dalot, Maguire, Evans, Lindelof. McTominay and Mainoo in the middle. Antony, Bruno, and Garnacho up top. Martial leading the line.
- PAOK: Their keeper was Kotarski. Defense had Koulierakis, Troost-Ekong, Vierinha, Otto. Midfield fielded Meite, Marcos Antonio, Ozdoev. Attacking was Konstanelias, Despodov, and Zivkovic.
But here’s the kicker – I had this weird doubt. I vaguely remembered seeing Varane’s name pop up somewhere else after the match. My gut said check another source. Hopped over to FotMob this time. Had to hunt for the specific date and fixture. Pulled it up, and bam, difference spotted! FotMob had Varane listed alongside Maguire in defense for United, not Evans! Lindelof was apparently out. And Garnacho started on the bench? Now what? Which site got it right? Massive headache.
Why this matters to me
Look, I track appearances for my youth team analysis project. Getting the wrong defender or missing a starter screws my whole month’s data. Simple as that. This is basic stuff! Why is it so hard to find simple, confirmed info without doubting it? These are massive clubs, people! It shouldn’t feel like deciphering hieroglyphs.
Ended up cursing my screen, slamming my keyboard a bit (gently!), and went digging for the official UEFA archive. Took me another 10 minutes. Finally found the proper match center deep in their stats section. Verified: Varane played alongside Maguire, Evans wasn’t on the pitch at kickoff, and Garnacho did start. FotMob was correct. That first site I found? Totally wrong, had the squad mixed up. Waste of half an hour trusting dodgy sources. Lesson learned: Always, always double-check lineup stuff against official sources or rock-solid apps, even when you think you’ve found it. Still don’t know how that first site messed up that badly. Unbelievable.