Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The Europa League once again returns and tonight we reach the Quarter Final stage as Anderlecht play host to Manchester United at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium. Jose Mourinho is looking to make sure his side take back a comfortable advantage into the second leg at Old Trafford next week.
Manchester United make the trip to Belgium without Wayne Rooney who although he has been in training as of late, the club captain has also suffered pain in both ankles and as a result has been left in Manchester.
For United they come into the game off the back of a routine win over Sunderland on Sunday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring and from there on the team did not look back as they strolled to a 3-0 win after additional goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford.
That win at The Stadium Of Light kept them in the race for the top four and after Arsenal’s defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday night it saw them end the game week in 5th place. They still have some work to do if they are to make the top four and Sunday could be a pivotal fixture in how the rest of the season pans out.
That is because they play host to Chelsea and should they lose that may well be the tipping point for Mourinho to then say that the rest of the season will be spent making sure that the Europa League is secured and with that qualification to the Champions League as the reward.
But if that is to be the case then they need to make sure they do the job in fixtures like Tonight’s. Anderlecht will be no pushover as they currently sit top of the Belgian First Division A – the way that league works is far to convoluted for me to get my head around on Easter Thursday mind you.
That said they must be doing well to top that mini league after a successful first half of the season. The players to look out for are Nicolae Stanciu and Lukasz Teodorczyk although they latter is an injury doubt going into the game.
If the Polish international does miss out then it will make United’s night easier but they of course must not forget the talents of 19 year old Youri Tielemans. The Belgian youngster is being coveted by a number of top English clubs and Tonight he will be putting himself in the shop window no doubt.
Can he do enough to give Anderlecht a first leg lead going into next week’s return fixture, I’m not to sure. He will certainly be one to watch and if United can keep him quiet then they will have foiled most of Anderlecht’s attacking creativity.
I think with Zlatan Ibrahimovic playing like Benjamin Button as of late – in terms of his age reversal quality then he will no doubt be up for this tie and you could see him once again playing a major part in proceedings. I think this will be advantage to United this evening, an away win for me.
