Feyenoord have caused a major upset on the opening match day of the Europa League after defeating Manchester United on Friday morning (AEST).

Tonny Vilhena scored the only goal of the game in the 79th minute as Jose Mourinho's men now leave Holland empty handed.

Mourinho made eight changes from the side that loss to Manchester City last weekend although fresh blood didn't help his cause as United were unable to really trouble Australian Brad Jones in goal.

United's Premier League rivals Southampton didn't have the same problems in their opening fixture, as a Charlie Austin double saw the Saints breeze past Sparta Prague 3-0 at home.

After unusual scenes that saw Dusan Tadic escorted away from Austin by a teammate following a dispute on who would take a penalty, Austin coolly converted and Southampton had an early lead.

Austin bagged a second in the first half before Jay Rodriguez rounded out the victory in the final minute.

SCOREBOARD

Group A

Feyenoord 1 (Vilhena 79) Manchester United 0

Zorya Luhansk 1 (Grechyshkin 52) Fenerbahce 1 (Kjaer 90+5)

Group B

BSC Young Boys 0 Olympiakos 1 (Cambiasso 42)

APOEL 2 (Vinicius 75, De Camargo 87) Astana 1 (Maksimovic 45+1)

Group C

Germany FSV Mainz 05 1 (Bungert 57) Saint-Etienne 1 (Beric 88)

Anderlecht 3 (Teodorczyk 14, Rafael 41-og, Capel 77) Qabala 1 (Dabo 20)

Group D

Netherlands AZ Alkmaar 1 (Stijn Wuytens 61) Dundalk 1 (Kilduff 89)

Maccabi Tel-Aviv 3 (Medunjanin 26, 70, Kjartansson 50) Zenit St Petersburg 4 (Kokorin 77, Mauricio 84, Giuliano 86, Djordjevic 90+2)

Group E

Astra Giurgiu 2 (Alibec 18, Sapunaru 74) Austria Vienna 3 (Holzhauser 16-pen, Friesenbichler 33, Alexander Gruenwald 58)

Viktoria Plzen 1 (Bakos 11) Roma 1 (Perotti 4-pen)

Group F

Sassuolo 3 (Lirola 60, Defrel 75, Politano 82) Athletic Bilbao 0

Rapid Vienna 3 (Schwab 51, Joelinton 59, Colley 60-og) Genk 2 (Bailey 29, 90-pen)

Group G

Panathinaikos 1 (Berg 5) Ajax 2 (Traore 34, Riedewald 67)

Standard Liege 1 (Dossevi 3) Celta Vigo 1 (Rossi 13)

Group H

Konyaspor 0 Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Ferreyra 76)

Sporting Braga 1 (Andre Pinto 24) Gent 1 (Milicevic 6)

Group I

FC Salzburg 0 FK Krasnodar 1 (Joaozinho 37)

Nice 0 Schalke 1 (Baba Rahman 75)

Group J

Qarabag 2 (Michel 7, Sadygov 90+4) Liberec 2 (Sykora 1, Baros 68)

PAOK 0 Fiorentina 0

Group K

Inter Milan 0 Hapoel Be'er Sheva 2 (Miguel Vitor 54, Buzaglo 69)

Southampton 3 (Austin 5-pen, 27, Rodriguez 90+2) Sparta Prague 0

Group L

Osmanlispor 2 (Diabate 64-pen, Umar 74) Steaua Bucharest 0

Villarreal 2 (Pato 28, Jonathan dos Santos 45+1) FC Zurich 1 (Sadiku 2)