Manchester United’s hopes of being involved in the main draw of the Women’s Champions League for the first time in their history are hanging in the balance after a disappointing first-leg loss away to SK Brann of Norway in the third qualifying round.

Some poor defending from the English side at a Brann free-kick allowed Ingrid Stenevik to head in the game’s only goal, with 13 minutes remaining, leaving Manchester United trailing 1-0 ahead of next Thursday 18 September’s reverse leg at Leigh Sports Village. Marc Skinner’s side must now overturn that deficit if they are to join Chelsea and the holders Arsenal in the new league phase of the competition this autumn.

The defeat capped off an already strange trip to Bergen for Manchester United, who were left scrambling after some of the players’ boots went missing in transit. The whereabouts of the missing boots, first reported by Reuters, are understood to remain a mystery, but the club managed to quickly source replacement boots in time for the match.

A Manchester United source confirmed to the Guardian: “A bag containing some of our players’ boots went missing during the journey to Bergen. We are investigating how this happened. In the meantime, we have secured new boots for all the affected players, and they are ready to participate in tonight’s game as normal.”

Even if that rather curious and unusual incident had not made the following gag rather tempting, it would already have been fair to assess this match by stating that Manchester United had left their shooting boots at home; The visitors created chance after chance but simply could not find a way past an inspired Selma Panengstuen in the Brann goal. Quite how Manchester United did not score at least two or three goals on the night will surely be beyond them.

The early stages of the first half had seen Elisabeth Terland head wide from an Anna Sandberg cross before a Terland shot was deflected wide, before Manchester United started to go really close. After a good run from deadline-day signing Jess Park, a lively Ella Toone saw a deflected shot superbly saved. Terland then headed over from a testing Toone cross and the England midfielder then went close herself.

Brann were backed by a new national-record crowd for any women’s football fixture in Norway of 16,019 and they were on their feet when Panengstuen saved well again, this time from Dominique Janssen, in the second half, after strong well down the left from Melvine Malard.

Against the run of play, Brann then punished Skinner’s team when Signe Gaupset’s inswinging, left-wing free-kick was met in the middle by Stenevik, who was allowed to get in between Lisa Naalsund and Terland to head past Phallon Tullis-Joyce. It was a rare attack from the home side and the first goal the Women’s Super League side have conceded in their four games in all competitions so far this term, after three previous wins out of three. They had eliminated PSV and Hammarby in the previous phase of the qualifying process, across a mini-tournament staged in Stockholm.

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The hosts Brann are managed by the former Crystal Palace coach Leif Smerud, who replaced the new Tottenham Hotspur head coach Martin Ho – formerly of Manchester United’s backroom team – when Ho left Brann earlier this summer. Smerud had been in charge of Crystal Palace during the second half of last term. His new team, who are four points clear at the top of the Toppserien, the highest division in Norway, and they celebrated this win on a famous night in their history. They were quarter-finalists two seasons ago but this victory is one of their finest achievements in continental football, while for Manchester United it was an exasperating night of frustration that leaves them with a lot of work to do next week.