Omonia's back-up keeper Francis Uzoho has turned into prime Buffon vs Man Utd, he's a machine

Omonia Nicosia backup goalkeeper Francis Uzoho took all the plaudits as the Cypriot side managed to keep Manchester United at bay.

United were playing hosts to Nicosia in the Europa League, with Erik ten Hag picking a largely full strength team against opposition they would have been expected to beat easily.

The hosts were dominant for most of the half but failed to find a way past Uzoho, who was playing in just his third club game of the season.

The Nigerian goalkeeper was in imperious form, and his save to keep out a long range effort from Casemiro, which would have been the midfielder's first for the club, was the highlight of the first half performance.

"Prime Buffon, Schmeichel, etc rolled into one tonight," one fan exclaimed, comparing the 23-year-old to some of the best keepers in football history.

"Audition for De Gea job," another fan said, with the Spanish goalkeeper's potential replacement having been recently pointed out by United fans.

Another added, "Uzoho turns prime Manuel Neuer playing against his boyhood club at Old Trafford. Rashford has tried everything against him - good saves every time from the Nigerian goalkeeper."

A fourth fan seemed to think the performance was part of a keepers conspiracy theory against the Premier League side, saying, "Why does every goalkeeper turn into Spider-Man against Manchester United? How is this Uzoho?"

"This entire game has just been Rashford vs Omonia’s keeper," another said, referring to Marcus Rashford's multiple attempts being thwarted by the keeper.

Aside from the save from Casemiro, it was mainly Rashford who was on the wrong end of Uzoho's incredible performance, which kept things goalless at half time.

It would not have made things easier for United fans to find out that the Nigeria international keeper is actually a fan of the Premier League club.

United had absolutely dominated the first half, with 15 shots at goal, keeping the ball for 79% of the game and stringing a mammoth 381 passes together.

However, despite that, the visitors could have taken the lead and United may have also been down to 10 men, which would have both made for interesting twists.

In the 42nd minute, Bruno Felipe should have squared the ball to Andronikos Kakoullis for a virtual tap in, but decided to shoot himself and missed.

Also late in the first half, Lisandro Martinez may have been lucky to get away with a nudge on one Nicosia forward who was running at David de Gea, who managed to clear the ball away.

Ten Hag's side won last week in Cyprus to give them the second win in the group, having beaten Sherif in week two, but they also lost to Real Sociedad in week one.

They will be desperate to top the group in order to avoid one of the teams dropping down into the Europa League from the Champions League, which could be Juventus or Barcelona.