Paul Scholes and Owen Hargreaves agree on Facundo Pellistri after making Manchester United debut

Former midfielder Paul Scholes was encouraged by Facundo Pellistri's performance after he made his first start for Manchester United during Thursday night's 1-0 win over Real Betis in the second leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

After earning six substitute appearances since returning from the World Cup in December, Pellistri, after catching the eye in all of those cameo roles, was handed a full debut by Erik ten Hag in the absences of fellow attackers Alejandro Garnacho and Antony. He started on the right-wing and stored a full 90 minutes under his belt.

He saw plenty of the ball down the right side and offered the direct running that was expected of him. He offered United something different in attack and he will now be hoping to retain his place for Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final against Fulham at Old Trafford.

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And although Pellistri is still finding his feet as a United player, Scholes was impressed by the Uruguay international's display.

"I thought he did alright," Scholes told BT Sport. "Again, he has not played a lot of football, but I thought he was quite lively going down the outside.

"He put a couple of crosses in early on that he possibly over-hit, but the whole team was like that, to be fair. But I thought he was a real threat.

"He was the one looking to create and the one looking to be dangerous. He is very direct and I don't think we will see any fancy stuff from him; he will be direct, go towards goal, try and cross the balls for forwards in the box and get shots at goal. I thought, overall, he was just alright."

Fellow former Reds midfielder Owen Hargreaves was alongside Scholes in the BT Sport studio providing punditry for the